Clearday-TRForce
11-16-2008, 07:36 AM
http://avrupa.de/KimKimdir/Foto/400/AYPA-KimKimdir-SC-Cem-Ozdemir-0009-400.jpg
Germany’s influential Greens party elected Cem Ozdemir as its co-leader, the first ethnic Turk to ascend to such a position in Germany.
Germany’s influential Greens party elected Cem Ozdemir as its co-leader, the first ethnic Turk to ascend to such a position in Germany. (UPDATED)
The 42-year-old social worker will lead the Greens with Claudia Roth, who was also elected at the party’s convention in the eastern city of Erfurt.
Ozdemir told the convention delegates Saturday that he is "looking forward" to working with Roth.
The appointment makes Ozdemir the highest-ranking ethnic Turkish politician.
There are some 3.5 million ethnic Turks in Germany, the country’s largest minority, representing about 3.7 percent of the population.
Ozdemir was elected with an overwhelming majority of 79.2 percent, AP reported.
The Greens were the junior partner in Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's ruling coalition for seven years until 2005.
BERLIN – Cem Ozdemir tells public audiences how he was wrapped in a towel in a Turkish bath when a German woman walked in naked. So he dropped his towel, "to show that I was well integrated at home in Germany."
The story is the politician's way of showing that even though he's an ethnic Turk, he is comfortable with German ways.
http://www.didf.de/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/300dpi40x55mm.jpg
The message is all the more important now that he will be named co-chairman of the influential Green Party this weekend. The appointment will make him the highest-ranking ethnic Turkish politician in a country that tends to keep its Turkish minority at arm's length.
On a continent that has struggled to produce leaders from minority communities even as it celebrates the triumph of Barack Obama in the United States, Ozdemir stands out as a rare politician who has broken racial barriers to win national prominence.
Born to Turkish Muslim parents in Swabia, a culturally proud region in a heavily Roman Catholic state, Ozdemir, 42, often finds himself straining to prove that Germany's 2.7 million ethnic Turks are invested in society. He also takes pains to quell Turkish suspicions that Germans conspire to keep them out of power.
"Sometimes I feel like I'm the one who translates and explains how the others behave, think, dream," he says.
Relations between Germans and Turks are generally civil, but not warm.
Germans fret over the divide between their secular values and Islamic culture, while Turks struggle for access to quality schools and positions of power. Five Germans of Turkish origin serve in parliament, but none has joined their party's leadership or the Cabinet. And while Turks have found success in independent businesses and the arts, they have little presence in the management of major German companies.
Ozdemir's new job will put him in a position to win a Cabinet post if the Greens make it into the ruling coalition in the next election.
In an interview at a cafe in Kreuzberg, his home and the heart of Berlin's Turkish community, Ozdemir says Turkey and Islam are his back story, but Western values guide his political convictions.
"I never put this to the center, that I'm of Turkish origin," Ozdemir says.
In 1994 he became the first ethnic Turk to win a seat in parliament, just two years after he gained German citizenship. His Turkish parents emigrated in the early 1960s looking for good wages and planning to return to Turkey.
They stayed, as did many Turkish "guest workers" who came to work in West German coal mines and steel mills. They fueled an economic revival after World War II and are now Germany's largest minority, about 3.3 percent of the population.
Ozdemir, who is married to an Argentine journalist and has a young daughter, still finds himself battling preconceived notions about race and religion.
At a recent dinner, Ozdemir was seated next to a German ambassador's wife who peppered him with questions: What was it like to grow up as a Muslim in Germany? Was he worried that raising a daughter here would challenge his religious ideals?
"She hadn't known me for five minutes, yet she was sure I was a practicing Muslim," says Ozdemir, a self-described secular Muslim who enjoys an occasional vodka cocktail.
"If this happens to you every day, a lot of people break down and say: 'Fine, if society wants me to be a Turk, let me be a Turk. If society wants me to be a Muslim, let me be a Muslim," he says. "I don't want that. Don't reduce me to the roots that I — by coincidence — have."
In his youth, Ozdemir learned two dialects of German as well as English, while growing up in a Turkish-speaking household. At technical college he trained as a social worker. In the Bundestag, Germany's lower house of parliament, he quickly earned a reputation as a charismatic advocate for environmental protection and better education for the working class.
"When I talk about the education system I never talk about immigrant children," Ozdemir says. "I start with working-class children. No one is talking about how they are systematically excluded from mainstream schools. I see myself as their speaker, too, because I come from a working-class family."
Claudia Roth, who will be co-leader of the Greens with Ozdemir, says he immediately drew attention for his eagerness to break expectations.
"Normally women work on women's rights and immigrants work on migration policy," she says. "Cem rejected that."
Ozdemir has had his political setbacks.
In 2002, he and another parliament member resigned amid accusations that they had used frequent flyer miles accrued on government trips for private travel. Even as he prepares to lead his party, the Greens have blocked him from running to reclaim a Bundestag seat.
Ozdemir spent 2003 as a fellow at the German Marshall Fund in Washington, a formative experience that he said helped him study how race and integration shaped the destiny of another minority politician: Obama.
"He's not one to let himself be victimized. And he's not selecting his partners based on race," Ozdemir says. "I would love to do the same thing here. It's not about Turks versus Germans, it's not about us as victims."
When Ozdemir decided to run to lead the Greens, his staff started a Facebook group called "Yes we Cem" — a takeoff on Obama's ubiquitous campaign slogan "Yes we can." Like Obama, Ozdemir enjoys a reputation as a pragmatist and has written books about his experience as an outsider.
In 2004 he won a seat in the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium. There, he decried human rights abuses in Turkey, while simultaneously advocating that country's bid to join the European Union.
"I want Turkey to move forward to EU membership. But that doesn't make me blind," Ozdemir says.
His measured critique of Muslim culture in Germany has put him in conflict with people at both ends of the spectrum on Islam's role.
In 2006, the Leipzig-based Imam Hassan Dabbagh refused to appear on a television panel with Ozdemir because he so frequently denounces Dabbagh's hard-line sermons.
But Ozdemir is also a critic of Necla Kelek, the German-Turkish author of the best-selling memoir "The Foreign Bride," who uses arranged marriage as a starting point for a much broader criticism of Islamic culture in Germany.
"Her conclusion — that Muslims are incompatible with democracy — I think that's wrong," Ozdemir says.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081114/ap_on_re_eu/eu_germany_turkish_trailblazer
http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/world/10368849.asp?scr=1
That's good.We hope we will succeed in the political life in Germany and be a constructive person between the Turks and Germans.
Best Regards,
CDTRF
Germany’s influential Greens party elected Cem Ozdemir as its co-leader, the first ethnic Turk to ascend to such a position in Germany.
Germany’s influential Greens party elected Cem Ozdemir as its co-leader, the first ethnic Turk to ascend to such a position in Germany. (UPDATED)
The 42-year-old social worker will lead the Greens with Claudia Roth, who was also elected at the party’s convention in the eastern city of Erfurt.
Ozdemir told the convention delegates Saturday that he is "looking forward" to working with Roth.
The appointment makes Ozdemir the highest-ranking ethnic Turkish politician.
There are some 3.5 million ethnic Turks in Germany, the country’s largest minority, representing about 3.7 percent of the population.
Ozdemir was elected with an overwhelming majority of 79.2 percent, AP reported.
The Greens were the junior partner in Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's ruling coalition for seven years until 2005.
BERLIN – Cem Ozdemir tells public audiences how he was wrapped in a towel in a Turkish bath when a German woman walked in naked. So he dropped his towel, "to show that I was well integrated at home in Germany."
The story is the politician's way of showing that even though he's an ethnic Turk, he is comfortable with German ways.
http://www.didf.de/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/300dpi40x55mm.jpg
The message is all the more important now that he will be named co-chairman of the influential Green Party this weekend. The appointment will make him the highest-ranking ethnic Turkish politician in a country that tends to keep its Turkish minority at arm's length.
On a continent that has struggled to produce leaders from minority communities even as it celebrates the triumph of Barack Obama in the United States, Ozdemir stands out as a rare politician who has broken racial barriers to win national prominence.
Born to Turkish Muslim parents in Swabia, a culturally proud region in a heavily Roman Catholic state, Ozdemir, 42, often finds himself straining to prove that Germany's 2.7 million ethnic Turks are invested in society. He also takes pains to quell Turkish suspicions that Germans conspire to keep them out of power.
"Sometimes I feel like I'm the one who translates and explains how the others behave, think, dream," he says.
Relations between Germans and Turks are generally civil, but not warm.
Germans fret over the divide between their secular values and Islamic culture, while Turks struggle for access to quality schools and positions of power. Five Germans of Turkish origin serve in parliament, but none has joined their party's leadership or the Cabinet. And while Turks have found success in independent businesses and the arts, they have little presence in the management of major German companies.
Ozdemir's new job will put him in a position to win a Cabinet post if the Greens make it into the ruling coalition in the next election.
In an interview at a cafe in Kreuzberg, his home and the heart of Berlin's Turkish community, Ozdemir says Turkey and Islam are his back story, but Western values guide his political convictions.
"I never put this to the center, that I'm of Turkish origin," Ozdemir says.
In 1994 he became the first ethnic Turk to win a seat in parliament, just two years after he gained German citizenship. His Turkish parents emigrated in the early 1960s looking for good wages and planning to return to Turkey.
They stayed, as did many Turkish "guest workers" who came to work in West German coal mines and steel mills. They fueled an economic revival after World War II and are now Germany's largest minority, about 3.3 percent of the population.
Ozdemir, who is married to an Argentine journalist and has a young daughter, still finds himself battling preconceived notions about race and religion.
At a recent dinner, Ozdemir was seated next to a German ambassador's wife who peppered him with questions: What was it like to grow up as a Muslim in Germany? Was he worried that raising a daughter here would challenge his religious ideals?
"She hadn't known me for five minutes, yet she was sure I was a practicing Muslim," says Ozdemir, a self-described secular Muslim who enjoys an occasional vodka cocktail.
"If this happens to you every day, a lot of people break down and say: 'Fine, if society wants me to be a Turk, let me be a Turk. If society wants me to be a Muslim, let me be a Muslim," he says. "I don't want that. Don't reduce me to the roots that I — by coincidence — have."
In his youth, Ozdemir learned two dialects of German as well as English, while growing up in a Turkish-speaking household. At technical college he trained as a social worker. In the Bundestag, Germany's lower house of parliament, he quickly earned a reputation as a charismatic advocate for environmental protection and better education for the working class.
"When I talk about the education system I never talk about immigrant children," Ozdemir says. "I start with working-class children. No one is talking about how they are systematically excluded from mainstream schools. I see myself as their speaker, too, because I come from a working-class family."
Claudia Roth, who will be co-leader of the Greens with Ozdemir, says he immediately drew attention for his eagerness to break expectations.
"Normally women work on women's rights and immigrants work on migration policy," she says. "Cem rejected that."
Ozdemir has had his political setbacks.
In 2002, he and another parliament member resigned amid accusations that they had used frequent flyer miles accrued on government trips for private travel. Even as he prepares to lead his party, the Greens have blocked him from running to reclaim a Bundestag seat.
Ozdemir spent 2003 as a fellow at the German Marshall Fund in Washington, a formative experience that he said helped him study how race and integration shaped the destiny of another minority politician: Obama.
"He's not one to let himself be victimized. And he's not selecting his partners based on race," Ozdemir says. "I would love to do the same thing here. It's not about Turks versus Germans, it's not about us as victims."
When Ozdemir decided to run to lead the Greens, his staff started a Facebook group called "Yes we Cem" — a takeoff on Obama's ubiquitous campaign slogan "Yes we can." Like Obama, Ozdemir enjoys a reputation as a pragmatist and has written books about his experience as an outsider.
In 2004 he won a seat in the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium. There, he decried human rights abuses in Turkey, while simultaneously advocating that country's bid to join the European Union.
"I want Turkey to move forward to EU membership. But that doesn't make me blind," Ozdemir says.
His measured critique of Muslim culture in Germany has put him in conflict with people at both ends of the spectrum on Islam's role.
In 2006, the Leipzig-based Imam Hassan Dabbagh refused to appear on a television panel with Ozdemir because he so frequently denounces Dabbagh's hard-line sermons.
But Ozdemir is also a critic of Necla Kelek, the German-Turkish author of the best-selling memoir "The Foreign Bride," who uses arranged marriage as a starting point for a much broader criticism of Islamic culture in Germany.
"Her conclusion — that Muslims are incompatible with democracy — I think that's wrong," Ozdemir says.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081114/ap_on_re_eu/eu_germany_turkish_trailblazer
http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/world/10368849.asp?scr=1
That's good.We hope we will succeed in the political life in Germany and be a constructive person between the Turks and Germans.
Best Regards,
CDTRF