More than 500 criminal complaints were filed in Cologne for New Year's Eve attacks. Of them, 40 percent of the victims allege they were sexually assaulted. The rest reported thefts and other assaults. The local police say around 1,000 men of North African and Arabic origin are responsible for these revolting acts, and most of these men are illegal migrants.

The Cologne police chief has since been fired, as the city's security measures had come under scrutiny. As expected, Chancellor Angela Merkel's immigration policy, too, has come under criticism since the attacks. Anti-immigration and xenophobic circles are blaming Merkel for the incident and ask her why Germany had accepted that many Arab and Muslim migrants.

Only time will tell how Merkel will cope with this criticism and if voters will sanction her for her open-door policy. We already know, however, that xenophobia and racism, along with Islamophobia, are growing stronger everywhere in Europe with every passing day.

There is no doubt that the New Year's Eve attacks are quite worrying. The incident should be studied carefully from different angles. If illegal migrants in Germany are capable of carrying out such attacks in an organized manner there are indeed many reasons for ordinary Germans to be afraid. Yesterday they have attacked women during a street party, but tomorrow, they could attack children, senior citizens, houses, schools, shopping centers and so on. As one cannot appoint a police officer to protect every individual, people may even consider taking their own precautions to protect themselves and their loved ones.

So perhaps in the future, we will have cities in Europe where some people will retreat into their neighborhoods and try to preserve their lives while others constantly harass them. A little bit like the Middle Ages. "True" Germans may hide in their homes, while migrants attack them to kill, rape and loot.

Is this scenario too surreal? Maybe it is for today, but what if more attacks like those in Cologne take place in the future?

Why did these people attack the women anyway? Either they want ordinary Germans to be frightened and abandon the city centers to them or they did it to provoke xenophobic and racist currents. Under these circumstances, more people will want to see migrants expelled, and will ask other European countries to receive more refugees or they will call the EU to put an end to the Schengen Agreement.

It is interesting that the attackers did something that would harm all refugees and migrants in the end. The scale and the organized manner of the Cologne attacks show that we are facing something like a terrorist attack.

Terrorist attacks are an invitation. In other words, they intend to make the targeted state act in some specific way, or they try to make this state commit mistakes. The Cologne attacks were something like that, a trap pushing Germany to limit freedoms and to close down borders. So we have to find the answer to the question of who would like to have a Germany where freedoms are restricted and borders closed, where foreigners are expelled and xenophobia and racism grow stronger.

It is sure that nationalist Germans would like to see such a Germany. What about those countries that would prefer Germany to retreat from global affairs, or develop a number of alliances with diverging countries, and what about those who would like to see Europe on the verge of collapse?