ANKARA - Zafer Uskul, a deputy from the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party and chairman of the Parliamentary Human Rights Monitoring Commission, said incidents of xenophobia seen in Europe showed that not much progress had been made in struggle against racism and segregation.
Issuing a written statement on the occasion of the March 21st, International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Uskul said people in various spots in the world were still humiliated, despised, and deprived off their rights because of their religion, colour or ethnicity.
"The recent attacks on Turks in Germany and the policies pursued against them worry the Turkish society. The recent fire in Ludwigshafen which claimed the lives of 9 Turkish citizens, and the series of fires that followed it unfortunately brought back the painful memories of the racist attacks of the past and created fear and worry among the Turkish Community," said Uskul.
Uskul said the procedures introduced with the new German immigration law were perceived as an assimilation policy segregating the Turkish community (in Germany) and it emboldened the racist attacks against Turks.
"However, the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination dictates countries to both monitor their political, national, and local policies that create segregation and take the necessary measures to cancel, change or remove those laws," said Uskul.
(OZG-MS)