As of: February 2, 2024, 12:20 p.m
By: Erkan Pehlivan
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Split
Critics fear that the Turkish president's supporters apparently want to enter the European Parliament with DAVA.
It is questionable whether she will make it.
Frankfurt – The discussions about the new political group DAVA (Democratic Alliance for Diversity and Awakening) continue.
DAVA, which primarily recruits people of foreign origin, wants to take part in the European elections in June.
It is questionable whether she will also make it into the European Parliament.
People of Turkish origin are more represented in politics than other migrant groups
Even internationally, parties that address migrants or a specific national group of origin are hardly successful, said researcher from the Max Planck Institute, Karen Schönwälder, who researches multi-religious and multi-ethnic societies in Göttingen to the
German Press Agency
.
Overall, German parties are still not able to sufficiently address citizens with a migration background.
Nevertheless, Germans with roots in Turkey in particular have been “actively involved in democratic processes in Germany” since the 1980s, emphasized the political scientist.
Compared to other ethnic groups, they are significantly more represented among migrant candidates for political office, members of parliament and public officials.
Experts consider it unlikely that it will enter the European Parliament
In Schönwälder's opinion, what further reduces the chances of a party that is strongly courting people of Turkish origin is the fact that its representatives are less well-known among Germans with a migrant background than the leading politicians of the major parties.
“After all, these people live in Germany and take part in social debates here.” Their political concerns did not differ fundamentally from those of other people.
Fatih Zingal, lawyer from Frankfurt, is DAVA's top candidate for the European elections.
(Archive photo) © IMAGO / Metodi Popow
According to top candidate Fatih Zingal, elected officials also wanted to join the new political association.
“Our political association #DAVA is currently receiving a lot of inquiries from people who are involved in established parties, including elected officials.
They want to come to us and that shows us: We are on the right path,” writes Zingal on X.
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An extended arm of Erdogan?
DAVA rejects allegations
DAVA went public in mid-January with the announcement that it wanted to take part in the European elections on June 9th.
Fr.de
reported extensively on the topic.
The chairman of DAVA, Teyfik Özcan (53), is not running himself.
DAVA is now also considering running in the 2025 federal election.
Özcan rejected allegations that DAVA was the extended arm of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-conservative Turkish ruling party AKP.
The top candidates Fatih Zingal, Ali Ihsan Ünlü and Mustafa Yoldaş are former officials of the AKP lobby group UID (Union of International Democrats) and the controversial mosque associations Ditib and IGMG.
Critics see danger in DAVA
“The attempt to establish a party for an ethnic group is very, very dangerous,” said Michael Roth (SPD), chairman of
the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Bundestag, to the
Tagesspiegel
.
FDP General Secretary Bijan Djir-Sarai sees the new political association as a lobby group for Erdogan.
“As an AKP offshoot, DAVA runs the risk of becoming an extension of Erdogan’s nationalist, Islamist and anti-Semitic regime in Germany and the EU.
“That shouldn’t be allowed to happen,” he told the newspaper.
The DAVA must therefore be “closely monitored and the rule of law must be very vigilant here”.
Supporters of DAVA “anti-LGBT, anti-Semitic, Islamist”
Bülent Bayraktar, former chairman of the Turkish community in the Nuremberg metropolitan region (tgmn), is also one of DAVA's critics.
“Appearances are usually deceptive in Islamist circles,” said Bayraktar in an interview with
FR.de
from
IPPEN.MEDIA
.
“The name DAVA is ambiguous: it stands for Islamization in the Arab and Turkish cultures.
As with the AKP, the first letters are aspiration instead of reality.
Just as the AKP stands as a 'Party for Justice and Development', DAVA stands for a 'Democratic Alliance for Diversity and Awakening'.
The second claim for both parties is identical.
The new political association advocates 'for diversity', but DAVA's supporting organizations are anti-LGBT, anti-Semitic, Islamist or ethnic-nationalist,” he said.
The term Dava is “used in Islamist-nationalist circles for the desired ideological 'overthrow',” said Bayraktar.
(erpe/with agencies)