On the night of May 29, 1993, four young German men with far-right affiliations set fire to the house of a Turkish family in the German city of Solingen's Untere Werner street. This incident, which demonstrated how dangerous racism is, has not been forgotten in Germany and Turkey despite the 25 years that passed. In the arson attack, Gülsün İnce (28), Hatice Genç (18), Hülya Genç (9), Saime Genç (5) and Gülistan Öztürk (12) died in the flames whereas Bekir Genç (15) and Güldane İnce (3) were severely injured. Bekir Genç, who stayed in a coma for three weeks and has had 24 operations so far, underwent a treatment that lasted for years.

Although the four men organizing the attack were given prison sentences, two of them were released early because of good behavior. The court also ruled that the perpetrators would pay a compensation for Bekir Genç, whose body was severely burned during the attack. But the verdict could not be practiced as the two of them were unable to pay since they were in prison whereas one of the released men's whereabouts could not be identified.

On May 29 every year, a commemoration ceremony is organized in Solingen. For this year's ceremony, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has been invited to deliver a speech during the ceremony upon the suggestion of North Rhine-Westphalia Minister President Armin Laschet, which pleased the Turkish people. The representation of Turkey and Germany by their senior officials is valuable on such a meaningful day. While commemorating the victims of the attack, the messages that will be given to racists is of critical importance. Everything was good until that point. But what happened lately cast a shadow on this positive development.

While preparing for the ceremony, no one was projecting that Turkey will undergo early elections. As the preparations were completed and only a few weeks were left for the ceremony, early election discussions came to the agenda in Turkey upon the proposal of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and it was decided to hold early elections on June 24, 2018. So, neither the organizers of the ceremony nor Çavuşoğlu have never aimed to conduct an election rally throughout the event. But unfortunately, an odious discussion was started by the left, which openly supports the PKK terror group, and the Green Party, which is driven by anti-Turkish sentiments. Their debates and remarks, which have been triggered by some politicians of Turkish descent known for their antagonism to Turkey, is aggrieving the Turks as we have been preparing to commemorate the Solingen arson attack.

Following Austria and the Netherlands, Germany also announced that they will not allow any campaign activity regarding the early elections in Turkey. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said this implementation goes for all the countries. We will see if this is really the case. Germany constitutes an important location to run election campaign especially for Greece and Italy. The sister parties of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), which is Maas' party, do engage in election propaganda in Germany with the support of the SPD. We will see if the propaganda ban on Turkish parties, especially the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), will also be valid for the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK).

These countries were not disturbed by Turkish election campaign until the majority of the electorate started voting for the AK Party. So, the bans directly aim at the AK Party as no one has yet hindered the pro-PKK Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) or the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP). The members of the Green Party and the left are even calling upon the HDP to engage in propaganda. But what really disturbed us is the fact that the Solingen attack commemoration ceremony was exploited by circles with anti-Turkish sentiments and used as election propaganda against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the ruling AK Party. This is a heinous attitude. Çavuşoğlu does not have any purpose to promote the AK Party in his scheduled visit to Solingen, as he will only attend the ceremony to show solidarity with the Genç family and protest racism.

So, what is the purpose of those who have gone on a rampage through media outlets regarding the ceremony? The neo-Nazis murdering five members of the family inflicted enough pain. And the black propaganda made through German media to object to Çavuşoğlu's attendance in the ceremony is a great disrespect to the Genç family.

The Genç family, the Turkish-German population and Germany do not deserve this. Çavuşoğlu is heading to Germany for the Genç family and the disrespectful attitude against him also disrespects the family, the Turkish people and the people who invited him. They must give a rest to the Genç family and the Turkish-Germans.