Two German footballers of Turkish heritage posing for photographs with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, have reignited a debate over dual citizenship and national identity in Germany, as the country embarks on a bid to defend its World Cup title.
Midfielders Mesut Özil and Ilkay Gündoğan, who currently play for Arsenal and Manchester City in the Premier League and are both set to represent their birth country at the tournament in Russia this summer, were criticised by politicians including the chancellor, Angela Merkel, for meeting with Erdoğan during his visit to the UK.
In a meeting at London’s Four Seasons hotel on Sunday evening, which was also attended by German-born Everton striker Cenk Tosun, the players handed signed club shirts to the leader of Turkey’s Justice and Development (AKP) party. The shirt given by Gündoğan, who holds German and Turkish passports, bore the message: “To my president, with my respects.”
The pictures amount to a PR coup for Erdoğan, who is seeking to extend his 15-year rule in a snap poll on 24 June but is banned from holding election campaign rallies on German soil. About 1.2 million people in Germany with a Turkish background are eligible to vote in the election.
Diplomatic relations between Germany and Turkey were already frayed over the one-year imprisonment of recently released German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yücel. But the backlash to the incident has been even louder because Özil and Gündoğan have both been championed as successful examples of Germany’s policy of cultural integration.
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