Professor Dr. Hakkı Keskin (born 1943 in Turkey), is a model Germano-Turk.He is a professor of Political Science and was the first German of Turkish descent to become a member of a German parliament (the Bürgerschaft in Hamburg), and the founder of the Türkische Gemeinde in Deutschland is seen as one of the prominent leaders of the country's Turkish community. In fact, he was one of the Turkish deputies who accompanied German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Turkey last October.
Hakki Keskin is known for unapologetic statements like
the EU must not be reduced to Christian values only
or for dubbing then CDU-chair Angela Merkels musings on a Turkish EU-membership (she was against it) as a "kind of declaration of war against Turkey and the Turks living in Germany"* or his disappointment at the SPD's "neo-liberal" social and economic reforms which, so the professor, have hit poorer Turks.
In the meantime, Hakki has become somewhat of a loose cannon. He is giving interviews to Turkish newspapers and TV stations, denying (or at least substantially relativising) the Armenian genocide by the Turks. SPIEGEL ONLINE asked Keskin for a clarification, which they, indeed, got.
There is "no proof of a genocide", so Keskin. Yes, Armenians died, "but was this a planned and intended destruction of the armenian population?", asked Keskin. At that time, "hundredthousands of Turks were killed" as well, which was not recognised by the "biased reporting in the European media".
Predictably, Hakki's party is all in a flutter now, but our multi-ethnic paragon refuses to budge. (Oh yes, I ought to mention that he had in June 2005 withdrawn from the Social Democratic Party and joined the post-Communist DIE LINKE -- The Left -- party for which he became a member of the Bundestag after the September 2005 elections.)
(Read the rest at Roncesvalles.)
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