German Green party leader Cem Ozdemir, a German-Turk who proposed a resolution to recognize the 1915-16 mass killings of Armenians in Turkey as genocide, is under police protection after receiving death threats, the Sunday edition of Die Welt reports.
“We are thoroughly used to abuse and insults, but we have never experienced such a high number of death threats,” the head of Ozdemir‘s office Marc Berthold told Die Welt.
The Berlin police increased their presence around Ozdemir‘s flat on Thursday following the almost unanimously approved resolution in the German parliament recognizing the killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide.
Ozdemir said that extremists were not unique to Germany. “Right-wing radicalism is not a German privilege. Unfortunately it also exists in Turkey and among German Turks,” Ozdemir told the newspaper.
Most death threats come from Turkish nationalists. “I will come to Germany and kill you,” one man tweeted. Another twwet reads: “We should honor this loose assimilated German Cem Ozdemir with a shoot in the head.”
The threats, whether they arrive with flyers, mail, e-mail or Twitter, are now forwarded by Ozdemir office directly to the Federal Criminal Police Office of Germanyand analyzed there.
