BERLIN
Turkish immigrant Enver Simsek, murdered by the neo-Nazi group NSU 25 years ago, was commemorated Tuesday in the southern German city of Nuremberg.
Several rights groups organized a memorial event at Enver-Simsek Square, the site where the florist was attacked by the neo-Nazi group on Sept. 9, 2000. Family members, local politicians, and community leaders gathered for the ceremony.
Representatives from various rights organizations also attended, showing solidarity with the victims' families and calling for more thorough investigations into the NSU network, and stronger action against right-wing extremism in Germany.
Rights group Amadeu Antonio Stiftung said many questions about the NSU murders still remain unanswered, particularly regarding the terror cell's connections and wider support network.
"One thing is certain: The NSU is not a closed chapter," the group said in a statement posted on social media. "Our solidarity goes out to the bereaved, whose pain and demands for clarification have not fallen silent for 25 years. Remembrance means not remaining silent, it also means drawing consequences to combat right-wing extremist terror."
Simsek, a Turkish immigrant who arrived in Germany in the 1980s, worked as a florist. He was shot eight times at his roadside mobile flower stand and died two days later. He was the first victim of the shadowy National Socialist Underground (NSU).
The NSU killed eight Turkish immigrants, a Greek citizen, and a German policewoman between 2000 and 2007, but the murders have long remained unresolved.
The German public first learned of the NSU’s existence and its role in the murders on Nov. 4, 2011, when two members of the group, Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Bohnhardt, committed suicide after an unsuccessful bank robbery. The police found evidence in their apartment showing they were behind the murders.
Until 2011, Germany's police and intelligence services dismissed any racial motive for the murders and instead treated immigrant families as suspects with connections to mafia groups and drug traffickers.
Recent media revelations have shown that the country’s domestic intelligence agency BfV and its local branches had dozens of informants who had contacts with the NSU suspects in the past.
But officials insisted that they had no prior information about the existence of the NSU terror cell or its role behind the killings.