Union of International Democrats

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Logo of the Union of International Democrats.

The Union of International Democrats ( UID for short ) is a lobby organization of the Turkish ruling party AKP in Europe and especially Germany. Until it was renamed on May 20, 2018, it operated under the name Union European-Turkish Democrats (abbreviated UETD, English Union of European Turkish Democrats , Turkish Avrupalı ​​Türk Demokratlar Birliği ). It presents itself to the public as an association for the promotion of political, social and cultural engagement of the Turks in the European Union , in which the concerns of social life and the process of integration into European society are in the foreground.

Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has assessed the goals and actions of the UID since 2018 as incompatible with the free-democratic order . The organization is therefore being monitored.

Organization and goals

Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution describes the UID in its constitutional protection report for 2017 as follows: “In its statutes, the UID presents itself as a non-governmental organization. According to this, the association does not pursue any political goals and is 'politically and ideologically neutral'. In fact, it is by no means an independent advocacy group for Turkish migrants, but rather a pro-government organization of the AKP that, in the interests of its parent organization, lobbying for the interests of the AKP at the political and social level. The overall view of media reporting and UID reactions shows a widespread network of organizations with strands of influence from high political positions in Turkey to local executive structures in Germany. In this way, the formation of opinion and the behavior of the Turkish diaspora can be directly influenced . It is also indirectly possible to influence political decision-making processes in Germany. "

Self-presentation

In the UID's public self-portrayal, it describes its central task as ensuring, on the basis of dialogue and cooperation, that European Turks become respected, respected and active citizens of the state in which they live.

distribution

The UID has branches in Bosnia-Herzegovina , Belgium , Germany , Finland , France , Luxembourg , Hungary , the Netherlands , Austria , Sweden and Switzerland . Most of the UID branches are in Germany. In each state it is organized according to the local association law. The UID was founded in 2004 in Cologne , at the instigation of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan , by fifty founding members from various professions. The European headquarters are also located in Cologne. The association activities from European countries come together here and are coordinated.

people

The chairman of the European headquarters is Bülent Bilgi.

In 2013, the CEO of UID Austria Turgay Taşkıran was replaced by Abdurrahman Karayazili, Zekeriyya Bakan acted as general secretary and Hosada Özkilinc acted as press spokeswoman. Karayazili resigned from office in early November 2014. According to information from the APA , he was advised to resign during a visit to Austria by the Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş . Karayazili's controversial dealings with journalists and the media, a scandal during a television appearance that led to hate postings against ORF presenter Lisa Gadenstätter , and the low turnout of Austro-Turks in the 2014 Turkish presidential elections are said to have been decisive . Since Karayazili's resignation, the business of UID Austria has been managed by long-time board member and now chairman of the board, Cem Aslan.

activities

UETD rally in Cologne 2013, on the occasion of the protests in Turkey 2013 .

In Germany, the UID acts as a lobby group for Turkish President Erdoğan and his AKP party. She campaigns for votes in Turkish parliamentary elections and regularly organizes appearances by AKP politicians abroad. The journalist Canan Topçu writes in this context of "linguistically eloquent and well-trained Erdoğan henchmen".

The chairman of the UID Switzerland board, Zafer Sirakaya, is suspected of having engaged in illegal espionage for the AKP on the occasion of a seminar on the genocide of the Armenians .

Organization of AKP election campaign appearances

In 2008 the UID organized Erdoğan's controversial appearance in Cologne, where the Turkish politician equated assimilation with a “crime against humanity”. In 2011, Erdoğan organized an election campaign appearance in Düsseldorf. In July 2013, during the protests in Turkey , she organized a solidarity rally for Erdoğan, at which the Turkish Minister of Culture Ömer Çelik in person and Erdoğan appeared by video message. The Turkish-speaking event on which u. a. the allegedly one-sided reporting of the German, English and American media directed against Erdoğan was attacked, between 17,000 and 25,000 participants from all over Germany and neighboring countries came to Düsseldorf on 240 buses.

In Austria, too, the local branch organized Erdogan's campaign tour in 2014 and his speech in the Albert-Schultz-Halle in Vienna.

Political statements

In June 2015, the Turkish government strongly criticized the Bundestag's resolution to recognize the genocide of the Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during the First World War and the German participation in it in the form of a resolution. In the run-up to the decision, the UID sent protest letters to many parliamentarians . After the Bundestag resolution was passed on June 2, 2016, members of the Bundestag of Turkish origin were threatened . The Turkish associations, such as the Turkish community in Germany and the mosque association DİTİB , expressed their disapproval of the death threats, while the UID remained silent.

Action against the Hizmet movement

The UID supports Erdoğan's measures against the supporters of Fethullah Gülen ( Hizmet movement ) before and after the attempted coup in Turkey on April 15-16. July 2016 . The UID chairman of the Essen region threatened them after the attempted coup on Twitter: “You honorless. There is no easy death for you. ”After the attempted coup in 2016, the UID caused a stir in Austria when it called on its supporters on the Internet to report coup supporters or AKP critics to the Turkish authorities.

Role in the Böhmermann case

According to research by the Stuttgarter Nachrichten and the ZDF magazine frontal 21 , the chairman of the UID Rhein-Neckar Yilmaz Ilkay Arin commissioned the rocker-like Ottoman Germania Boxclub to carry out a “punishment” against the TV presenter Jan Böhmermann . On the previous evening, on his show Neo Magazin Royale, he recited a " humiliating poem " about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan . In conversations tapped by law enforcement authorities, Arin said that his “boss” was the Turkish AKP politician and Erdogan's confidante Metin Külünk . The investigators came to the conclusion that it was the intention of the Turkish government, with the help of organizations such as the UID, "to influence the media landscape, freedom of expression and freedom of the press in Germany, among other things."

Web links

Commons : Union of European-Turkish Democrats  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The same ban for everyone . Southgerman newspaper. 23 May 2018.
  2. ↑ Erdogan on a state visit to Germany Red Carpet for an Autocrat By Kemal Hür and Gunnar Köhne, Deutschlandfunk , September 27, 2018
  3. ↑ a b Der Spiegel : Migrants Party BIG. Erdogan's Berlin lobby group , accessed on September 16, 2011.
  4. ↑ Hüseyin Topel: The Impact of Turkish Politics in Germany Deutschlandfunk, February 27, 2017, accessed on March 2, 2017.
  5. ↑ a b Federal Ministry of the Interior, for Building and Home Affairs : Verfassungsschutz Report 2017 . July 2018.
  6. ^ Constitutional protection report : extremists, gun freaks and spies . T-online. July 24, 2018.
  7. ↑ Alman iç istihbaratı UETD'yi izliyor ( Turkish ) In: Deutsche Welle . July 24, 2018.
  8. ↑ UETD: Regions and Offices (accessed November 23, 2014).
  9. ↑ Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Home Affairs : Verfassungsschutz Report 2017 . July 2018.
  10. ^ UETD: Executive Board (accessed April 4, 2016).
  11. ↑ a b UETD Austria: Board of Directors ( Memento from September 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ).
  12. ↑ Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan is supposed to come to Vienna , derstandard.at , June 2, 2014, (accessed on July 21, 2014).
  13. ↑ Analysis: Who is Abdurrahman Karayazili? , diepresse.com , August 5, 2014, (accessed November 13, 2014).
  14. ↑ Karayazili resigned as head of UETD , derstandard.at, November 10, 2014, (accessed November 13, 2014).
  15. ^ Controversial UETD President resigned , wien.orf.at, November 10, 2014, (accessed on November 13, 2014).
  16. ↑ zeit.de The other German Turks (as of March 17, 2017)
  17. ↑ Kebab entrepreneur spied for Turkey, 20 minutes, http://www.20min.ch/schweiz/news/story/Kebab-Unternehmer-spionierte-fuer-die-Tuerkei-30672365
  18. ↑ Torsten Thissen: In Düsseldorf, 20,000 Turks demonstrate for Erdogan In: rp-online from July 8, 2013.
  19. ↑ Pascal Brueckner: Instrumentalized Migranten In: taz.de from 7 July 2013.
  20. ^ Anna Lehmann, Konrad Litschko: Parliamentarians under care . In: the daily newspaper . Berlin June 13, 2016, p. 5 .
  21. ↑ Leonie Feuerbach: In constant fear. On the night of the coup, Ankara accused Gülen. Its followers also see themselves as persecuted in this country . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of July 15, 2017, p. 5.
  22. ↑ New migrant party wants to stir up politics. October 22, 2018, accessed October 25, 2018 .