Germans, Turks use trial of neo-Nazi Zschäpe to get their messages across

Czech Radio reports that the first two days of the trial
of neo-Nazi Beate Zschäpe, which started last week, have been accompanied by displays
of emotion. Various people have been using the event to get their own messages
across to the public.

In Munich, where the trial is being held, an older woman
has been standing next to the town hall holding a sign with various slogans on
it. Some ignore her, while others engage her in discussion.

“The murders of Turks in Germany are constantly spoken
of. I want to show that Christians are being murdered the same way in Turkey.
It’s just as bad there. No verdicts have been handed down in those cases yet,” says
Maria Frank, referring to the murder of three men in a small Christian
publishing house in Malatyi, southeastern Turkey, in 2007. One of the victims
was German.

“I don’t want to plead on Zschäpe’s behalf in any way.
Clearly what she did is horrible, but I want to draw attention to the
persecution of Christians in Turkey,” Frank says.

Frank is a member of a new political party, Freiheit
(Svoboda), which says it considers the Koran to be just as criminal a book as
Mein Kampf. One passer-by commented that it is unbelievable what some people are
daring to say today in the center of Munich. No one else joins Frank during the
officially announced time of her rally.

A few hundred meters away, in front of the High Court
where the trial of the neo-Nazi movement members is taking place, another woman
is also holding a sign. Her simple slogan is “Stop Racism”.

This
woman, Turkish immigrant Beratin Koc, lives not far from the place where Uwe
Böhnhardt and Uwe Mundlos murdered a Greek businessman, one of their 10
victims. She has been living in Germany for 30 years and says she has never
encountered racism herself. Reportedly the situation in Bavaria is different
than elsewhere in Germany.

“I
like it here, I have German friends, good neighbors, no problems with work, I
have simply integrated,” Koc says. She and her friends from the Atatürk Society
of Munich have come to demonstrate in front of the courthouse.

“Germany is a democratic country and I want her to remain
one. I believe this trial will be conducted completely democratically. As far
as that woman is concerned, such people are everywhere, racists are everywhere,
even in your country,” Koc told the Czech Radio reporter.

The German public has been closely following the trial. Zschäpe
is accused of participating in the murder of a German policewoman, a Greek
immigrant, and eight Turkish immigrants. So far her attorneys have reportedly
been introducing ever-newer motions to obstruct the proceedings.