"After the initial euphoria had waned, Turks in Germany began uttering the phrase duvar bizim üstüme düstü -- the Wall fell on us -- reflecting new tensions, anxieties, and violence for which they were ready targets."
As Senocak describes, the racial tensions in Germany came to a head after the end of the Cold War. Needing yet another target for their frustrations, the recently humiliated party started directing attention at the Turks. They became the new scapegoat for the fall of communism in the East. The Turkish phrase quoted here reflects a simple accusation in kind. The Turks understood that they were arbitrary targets, yet they were unable to effectively deter further violence.
"In today's Germany, Jews and Germans no longer face one another alone. Instead, a situation has emerged which corresponds to my personal origin and situation. In Germany now, a trialogue is developing among Germans, Jews, and Turks, among Christians, Jews, and Moslems."
This is an interesting observation on Senocak's part. He attributes at least part of the political unrest of the Germany in the 1990s to the collective identities of particular ethnic and religious sects. Rather than individuals resolving their conflict, the stakes were raised to massive levels, the implications of which grew increasingly grave. If the discord between ethnic groups waned, they would turn to religion for reasons why they could not peaceably co-exist until all parties are constantly arguing with the collective others.
"The undoing of the German-Jewish dichotomy might rescue both parties, Germans and Jews, from their traumatic experiences. But for this to happen they would have to admit the Turks into their sphere. And for their part, the Turks in Germany would have to discover the existence of the Jews not just as part of the German past, in which they cannot share, but as part of the present in which they live."
What Senocak is calling for here is not merely racial reconciliation but a more profound mutual identification of one ethnicity with similar past traumas of another. For the Jews and ethnic Germans this looks like reconciling their mutual antagonism in order to rebuild Germany as a home in which both have suffered. Both sides of the equation suffered during the war and could find healing in their acceptance of one another's suffering. Similarly, yet still distinct, the Turks are asked to identify with the Jews as not only immigrants but also as family. To the Turks, the Jews are a part of German history, but the limited perspective fails to reflect the close kinship of the two ethnic groups in antiquity.
"Without the Jews the Turks stand in a dichotomous relationship to the Germans. They tread in the footprints of the German Jews of the past."
Senocak calls for an identification of Turks and Jews with one another for practical purposes. He sees this relationship between the two ethnic groups as a means to resolving the German dominant of xenophobia at this time. The unity of two groups can lead to the addition of a third, but more importantly it opens the door for an undeniable ownership of the Germany identity on the part of immigrant populations.
