1984 Duisburg arson attack

Last updated
1984 Duisburg arson attack
Location Duisburg
Date26 August 1984
Attack type
arson
Deaths7 (including 4 children)
Injured23
PerpetratorsEvelin D.
Motivedisputed

The Duisburg arson attack was an attack on a Turkish house in Duisburg, Germany in 1984. [1] It was the first arson attack on a Turkish migrant family in Duisburg and Germany. [2]

In the 1980s, there was several attacks on migrants in Germany. [3]

It was reported in local and regional media that the fire spread quickly throughout the building from the ground floor through the wooden staircase of the old building. [1] Seven members of the Satır family died, [4] and 23 people were wounded. Only the two daughters of the family managed to flee by jumping out of the window, and were seriously injured. [5] The father Ramazan Satır, who was not at the house, was unharmed. [2] The victims were Döndü Satır, (40), Zeliha and Rasim Turhan (18) and their son Tarık Turhan (1 month), Çiğdem Satır (7), Ümit Satır (5) and Songül Satır (4). [6] The family was originally from Adana, Turkey, [7] and they were buried in the village of Köprülü in Ceyhan. [1]

The case was closed in 1996 when Evelin D. was identified as the perpetrator. She was the perpetrator of another previous attack in Duisburg in 1993 on a migrant family as well. She was a pyromaniac, which caused the court to drop the possibility of the attacks being racially motivated. However the victims and activist organizations have claimed that the attack was caused by xenophobia. [2] [7] [8]

The short film Made in Germany 3 was inspired by the event. [9] The “Initiative Duisburg 1984” organization founded in 2018 has the aim to bring the forgotten arson attack back into the public consciousness. [10] The attack was commemorated in 2019, and a podcast was made with the survivors. [6] [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genocide denial</span> Attempt to deny the scale and severity of genocide

Genocide denial is the attempt to deny or minimize the scale and severity of an instance of genocide. Denial is an integral part of genocide and includes the secret planning of genocide, propaganda while the genocide is going on, and destruction of evidence of mass killings. According to genocide researcher Gregory Stanton, denial "is among the surest indicators of further genocidal massacres".

Jewish extremist terrorism is terrorism, including religious terrorism, committed by extremists within Judaism.

Turks in Germany, also referred to as German Turks and Turkish Germans, are ethnic Turkish people living in Germany. These terms are also used to refer to German-born individuals who are of full or partial Turkish ancestry. The majority of Turks arrived or originate from Turkey, although some ethnic Turkish communities in Germany trace their ancestry to other parts of southeastern Europe or the Levant. At present, ethnic Turkish people form the largest ethnic minority in Germany. They also form the largest Turkish population in the Turkish diaspora.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1993 Solingen arson attack</span> Neo-Nazi arson attack on Turkish home in Solingen

The Solingen arson attack was one of the most severe instances of xenophobic violence in modern Germany. On the night of 28–29 May 1993, four young German men belonging to the far right skinhead scene, with neo-Nazi ties, set fire to the house of a large Turkish family in Solingen in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Three girls and two women died; fourteen other family members, including several children, were injured, some of them severely. The attack led to violent protests by Turkish diaspora members in several German cities and to large demonstrations of other Germans expressing solidarity with the Turkish victims. In October 1995, the perpetrators were convicted of arson and murder and given prison sentences between 10 and 15 years. The convictions were upheld on appeal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mardin engagement ceremony massacre</span> Massacre in Bilge, a village in the Mardin province of Turkey

The Mardin engagement ceremony massacre was a massacre carried out by Mehmet Çelebi, a village guard of Kurdish origin, at an engagement ceremony where at least forty-four people were killed on May 4, 2009, in the village of Bilge in the Mazıdağı district of south-eastern Mardin Province in Turkey. The attack was perpetrated using grenades and automatic weapons by at least two masked assailants, who authorities believe are involved in a feud between two families. According to some sources, it was an internal feud of the Kurdish Çelebi clan.

Racism in German history is inextricably linked to the Herero and Namaqua genocide in colonial times. Racism reached its peak during the Nazi regime which eventually led to a program of systematic state-sponsored murder known as The Holocaust. According to reports by the European Commission, milder forms of racism are still present in parts of German society. Currently the racism has been mainly directed towards Asian and African countries by both the state and through the citizens which includes being impolite and trying to interfere in internal matters of African countries by the diplomats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Socialist Underground murders</span> 2000s Neo-Nazi serial murders in Germany

The National Socialist Underground murders were a series of racist murders by the German Neo-Nazi terrorist group National Socialist Underground. The NSU perpetrated the attacks between 2000 and 2007 throughout Germany, leaving ten people dead and one wounded. The primary targets were ethnic Turks, though the victims also included one ethnic Greek and one ethnic German policewoman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Socialist Underground</span> German neo-Nazi militant organization, 2001-2010

The National Socialist Underground, or NSU, was a German neo-Nazi militant organization active between 2001 and 2010, and uncovered in November 2011. Regarded as a terror cell, the NSU is mostly associated with Uwe Mundlos, Uwe Böhnhardt and Beate Zschäpe, who lived together under false identities. Between 100 and 150 further associates were identified who supported the core trio in their decade-long underground life and provided them with money, false identities and weapons. Unlike other terror groups, the NSU had not claimed responsibility for their actions. The group's existence was discovered only after the deaths of Böhnhardt and Mundlos, and the subsequent arrest of Zschäpe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suruç bombing</span> 2015 suicide attack in Suruç, Turkey

The Suruç bombing was a suicide attack by the Turkish sect of Islamic State named Dokumacılar against Turkish leftists that took place in the Suruç district of Şanlıurfa Province in Turkey on 20 July 2015, outside the Amara Culture Centre. A total of 34 people were killed and 104 were reported injured. Most victims were members of the Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP) Youth Wing and the Socialist Youth Associations Federation (SGDF), university students who were giving a press statement on their planned trip to reconstruct the Syrian border town of Kobanî.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">February 2016 Ankara bombing</span> Bombing in Turkey by Kurdish separatists

The February 2016 Ankara bombing killed at least 30 people and injured 60 in the capital of Turkey. According to Turkish authorities, the attack targeted a convoy of vehicles carrying both civilian and military personnel working at the military headquarters during the evening rush hour as the vehicles were stopped at traffic lights at an intersection with İsmet İnönü Boulevard close to Kızılay neighborhood. Several ministries, the headquarters of the army and the Turkish Parliament are located in the neighbourhood where the attack occurred. The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) took responsibility for the attack and said they targeted security forces. Censorship monitoring organization Turkey Blocks reported nationwide internet restrictions beginning approximately one hour after the blast pursuant to an administrative order. The attack killed 14 military personnel, 14 civilian employees of the military, and a civilian.

The 2016 Munich knife attack took place on 10 May 2016 when a 27-year-old mentally disturbed man stabbed four men, one of them fatally at Grafing station in the Upper Bavarian town of Grafing, some 32 kilometres (20 mi) from Munich, southern Germany. As the knifer reportedly shouted "Allahu Akbar" while stabbing the random victims, first reactions of the German and international media as well as the general public suspected an Islamist attack. On his arrest shortly after the attack, the perpetrator proved to be a mentally disturbed, unemployed carpenter with drug problems and no known ties to Islamist organizations. In August 2017, the Landgericht München II ruled the man to not be criminally liable of the crime and committed him to a closed psychiatric ward.

Crimes may be committed both against and by immigrants in Germany. Crimes involving foreigners have been a longstanding theme in public debates in Germany. In November 2015, a report that was released by the Federal Criminal Police (BKA) stated that "While the number of refugees is rising very dynamically, the development of crime does not increase to the same extent." Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière (CDU) noted that "refugees are on average as little or often delinquent as comparison groups of the local population." A 2018 statistical study by researchers at the University of Magdeburg using 2009-2015 data argued that, where analysis is restricted to crimes involving at least one German victim and one refugee suspect and crimes by immigrants against other immigrants are excluded, there is no relationship between the scale of refugee inflow and the crime rate. In 2018 the interior ministry under Horst Seehofer (CSU) published, for the first time, an analysis of the Federal Police Statistic, which includes all those who came via the asylum system to Germany. The report found that the immigrant group, which makes up about 2% of the overall population, contains 8.5% of all suspects, after violations against Germany's alien law are excluded.

The Zürich Islamic center shooting occurred on 19 December 2016 in the Zürich Islamic Center in central Zürich. Three people were injured when a gunman opened fire in the center, though all survived. The perpetrator, who had stabbed a former friend to death the day prior to the shooting, died by suicide after fleeing the scene.

Antisemitism is a growing problem in 21st-century Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kyoto Animation arson attack</span> 2019 attack in Kyoto, Japan

The Kyoto Animation arson attack occurred at Kyoto Animation's Studio 1 building in the Fushimi ward of Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan, on the morning of 18 July 2019. The arson killed 36 people, injured an additional 34, and destroyed most of the materials and computers in Studio 1. It is one of the deadliest massacres in Japan since the end of World War II, the deadliest building fire in Japan since the 2001 Myojo 56 building fire, and the first massacre ever to have occurred at a studio associated with an entertainment company, and the animation industry.

Enver Şimşek was a Turkish-born businessman in Germany who was the first victim of the series of murders by the National Socialist Underground (NSU) terrorist group. The owner of a flower shop in Schlüchtern in Hesse, he was gunned down on 9 September 2000 at a mobile flower stand in Nuremberg. Two days later he died in a hospital as a result of injuries sustained in the attack.

The Mölln arson attack was the first fatal case of far-right extremists setting fire to migrants' homes in Germany, and one of the earliest cases of Right-wing terrorism in the country's post-unification history. On the night of 22 November 1992, 2 German men with neo-Nazi ties set fire to the 2 houses of Turkish families in Mölln, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. 3 Turks died in the attack while 9 others were injured.

The 2023 Adana attack was a knife attack at the Adana provincial headquarters of the Free Cause Party (HüdaPar), located in Seyhan, Turkey. Salih Demir, the president of HüdaPar's Adana wing, was injured, and his secretary Sacit Pişgin lost his life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Afrikaanderwijk riots</span> 1972 race riots in Rotterdam

Afrikaanderwijk riots were the first race riots of their kind in the Netherlands. The riots broke out on 10 August 1972 and continued until 16 August in the Afrikaanderwijk, Rotterdam. While their precise cause is unknown, the clashes are considered to be an example of xenophobic violence by some and economic tensions by others. The clashes are known for creating new laws towards the city's growing immigrant population and destroying the stereotype of Dutch tolerance. In 2019, it gained renewed popularity due to the events in Ankara: Islamist and activist organizations used the riots of 1972 as an example to create empathy for the Syrian refugees in Turkey.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Yılmaz, Enise (2020-08-25). "Duisburg Wanheimerort Saldırısı: Irkçı Kundaklama ve Unutulan Yedi İsim". Perspektif (in Turkish). Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  2. 1 2 3 Bilgü, İlhan (2021-07-02). "Almanya'da Irkçı Saldırıların Kronolojisi: Cinayetler, Kundaklamalar, Silahlı Baskınlar!". Camia (in Turkish). Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  3. "Racist violence in West Germany before 1990 – Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right" . Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  4. Foundation, Roma (2023-08-21). "Duisburg: Forgotten". rroma.org. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  5. "35 yıldır acımız dinmiyor". Sabah (in Turkish). Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  6. 1 2 "Fighting for memory as a tour de force – Şahin Çalışır – Doing Memory" . Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  7. 1 2 3 Nogueira, Nogueira, Katarzyna. "Guest Workers" in Mining: Historicising the Industrial Past in the Ruhr region from the Bottom Up?" (PDF). Zeitschrift für Biographieforschung, Oral History und Lebensverlaufsanalysen. 31 (2).{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. Kluhs, Johanna-Yasirra; Rodonò, Aurora; Saavedra-Lara, Fabian; Tanç, Nesrin (2021). What we can relate to. StrzeleckiBooks. ISBN   978-3-946770-89-3.
  9. "International Short Film Festival Oberhausen Made in Germany 3 - WDDS Cyprus". www.wddscyprus.com. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  10. "Initiative Duisburg 1984". www.inidu84.de. Retrieved 2024-02-18.