There has been extensive coverage in the German media over the last few weeks of the case of Ayhan Sürücü - a turkish-german convicted of the honour-killing of his sister, Hatun, in Berlin last year. The punishment handed down from the Berlin Landesgericht today - a period of imprisonment of nine and a half years - has been particularly heavily criticised.
Berlin's morning paper the Berliner Morgenpost has printed controversial photos of other family members celebrating the reduced sentence, whilst Germany's most widely-respected national paper, the Frankfurter Allgemeine, has also weighed in to the argument by featuring a front-page article quoting Berlin Senator, Körting, as saying that "the Sürücü family should leave Germany, if they themselves have any sense of honour ".
Meanwhile, on the other side of Europe, Turkey's most influential newspaper, Hürriyet, was of the belief that such an intrafamilial honour-killing would have been far more severely punished had it been tried in Turkey - following new regulations introduced there late last year.
The integration of turkish immigrants into german culture has been a not unproblematic one for the german state since the 1960's, when many turkish families immigrated to Germany as part of 'guestworker' programmes. Currently, approximately 2.2 million turkish citizens call Germany home. al
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Monday, April 03, 2006
Berlin's half-marathon gets Spring up and running
Accompanied by temperatures of 17 degrees and bright sunshine, 150,000 spectators crammed some of Berlin's most famous streets on Sunday to watch over 20,000 athletes take part in the German capital's half-marathon. First athlete across the line was Kenya's Paul Kosgei in 59 minutes and 7 seconds, the second fastest time ever.
Meanwhile, in the nearby states of Saxony and Brandenburg, wet Spring weather has led to state-wide flood-warnings and evacuations. Despite very prevalent news coverage in the German media, early prognoses suggest that water levels on the River Elbe will not reach those attained by the major floods of Dresden and surrounding areas in 2002. al
Meanwhile, in the nearby states of Saxony and Brandenburg, wet Spring weather has led to state-wide flood-warnings and evacuations. Despite very prevalent news coverage in the German media, early prognoses suggest that water levels on the River Elbe will not reach those attained by the major floods of Dresden and surrounding areas in 2002. al
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