AACHEN, Germany
Five members of a Turkish family who were killed in 1993 in a racist arson attack in the German city of Solingen were commemorated on Thursday in the 21st anniversary of the killings.
On May 29, 1993, four young men aged between 16 and 23 set fire to the house of Genc family, killing five female members and injuring fourteen others. Three of the attackers were sentenced to ten years in prison while one received 15 years of imprisonment.
"The Solingen murder marked an obvious manifestation of similar racist movements," Turkey's EU Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told an AA correspondent.
Speaking in the German city of Aachen after receiving the Charlemagne Prize, Cavusoglu said the European governments did not take sufficient precautions to avoid similar incidents.
He said racism had been on the rise in the EU countries for a long time, but they started to panic only after witnessing an upsurge in far right votes in the European Parliament elections.
"This [racism] threatens the values that brought Europe together. (...) I hope that moderate European politicians will get the message," he said.
aa.com.tr/en
