Cologne Turkish also fear crime and race tensions

As Cologne reels from the New Year's Eve violence against women, it's not just ethnic Germans who worry -- many Turkish migrants also fear crime and tell their host country: don't blame us.

Some worry that Germany's record migrant influx is reigniting troubles that Cologne -- a pioneer city in multicultural life, with large-scale labour migration since the 1960s -- thought it had long left behind.

"What happened on New Year's Eve was horrible. One group of foreigners did horrible things, and now some Germans think all foreigners are horrible," said Mihriban Findik, a 40-year-old Kurdish woman from Turkey who has lived in Germany for 23 years.

She said the violence –- in which men described as North African- and Arab-looking groped and robbed hundreds of women -- was no surprise to her, as a single mother working in a tobacco shop in the low-income district of Kalk.

"There are many foreign men here, without women, some drink too much, they smoke hash. Men come in and say, 'do you want to go with me?' I know I have to laugh or there'll be trouble."

- 'Police abandoned us' -

Findik said she often felt vulnerable: "Some come from countries where women are covered and they see women in skirts and go crazy. It has got worse. I didn't used to be scared, but now I am."

Many long-established migrants from Turkey say they are as much victims of crime as the majority population.
A Turkish kiosk owner fumed that "the police see everything and do nothing. They have abandoned us."

"It's been getting worse for two years, the street isn't safe anymore," said the 50-year-old who has been in Germany for 30 years and, like many people discussing the sensitive subject, declined to give his name.

"They come in, they terrorise us and steal. Five people come in, one talks to you, the others steal –- chocolate, cigarette lighters, whatever," he said, adding that his former 24-hour business now closes at midnight for safety reasons.

He said he wasn't worried about the new refugees from Syria and other war zones, but thuggish groups from some North African countries who arrived years ago via EU countries.

- Pepper spray sold out -

"I don’t have a problem with the refugees, they should stay," he said.

North of Cologne lies Chorweiler, a district of 1970s era public housing tower blocks, home to over 100 nationalities, where many balconies have satellite dishes to receive foreign language TV.
One resident, Ijaz Khan, 29, born in Germany to Pakistani parents, said he had felt a darkening mood since New Year's Eve, especially as he commutes to his hotel barkeeper job downtown.

"To some people I might look North African, and I've noticed people on the train look at the empty seats next to me and keep walking, probably thinking I could be one of them."

Having spent a decade of his childhood in Pakistan, he said he wasn't surprised that faraway conflicts would eventually come to haunt Europe.

"If you stir a hornets' nest, hornets come out," he said.

As global refugee flows have risen sharply, he voiced fears that his German home city now could backslide on past gains in cultural diversity and tolerance.

"In Cologne we've always lived quite well together, it's a bit like a big village," he said. "My best friend is German. Integration has worked relatively well here. There are many mixed marriages.

"But New Year's Eve has shaken all that. I've seen people approach each other differently, with different eyes, especially when you look different."

"The shops are all out of pepper spray. Women have bought up all the supplies."

Yet, he said he couldn't blame people for feeling insecure, especially at the central railway station, where there are drug dealers and 'dancers' -- pickpockets who con passers-by with sing-song and jovial hugs and steal their wallets.

"The police have ignored all this for years," he said, adding that he was shocked but not surprised by the New Year's Eve troubles.

"I think it was a mix –- thieves, dancers, asylum-seekers, I don't know," he said.

"Some of them come from countries where everything is forbidden and think that here everything goes, that German police are soft. I think alcohol played a big role too.

"I think everything just came together. Everyone just thought they could do what they want."
Source :AFP