On the night of May 29, 1993, four young German men with far-right ties set fire to a Turkish family's house in Untere Werner Street in Solingen in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. This arson attack against the Genç family, who was originally from Turkey's Amasya province, demonstrated how dangerous racism is and the incident has not been forgotten in Germany or Turkey although 25 years have passed.

During the arson attack, Gülsün İnce (28), Hatice Genç (18), Hülya Genç (9), Saime Genç (5) and Gülistan Öztürk (12) died in the flames, whereas the 15-year-old Bekir Genç and 3-year-old Güldane İnce survived with severe injuries. Having remained in a coma for three weeks and undergone 24 surgeries so far, the treatment of Bekir Genç has been continuing for years.

Although the four neo-Nazi men organizing the attack were convicted and given prison sentences, two of them were released after a short while for good behavior. The court also ruled that the four men would pay a compensation for Bekir Genç, who suffered burns on over 36 percent of his body. But the verdict could not be carried out 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.

Each year, we commemorate the victims of this attack and condemn racism. This year's commemoration ceremony was going to be a particularly meaningful one as the ceremony was originally planned to be held at North Rhine-Westphalian State Parliament. But unfortunately, this plan was canceled as a result of propaganda led by the Greens and the Left and supported by some Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) members. They objected to the plan because Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu would attend the ceremony and "would engage in election propaganda during the event." Hence, due to this heinous and baseless allegation, the commemoration ceremony could not be organized at the State Parliament.

So, the event is taking place in Solingen with the attendance of Çavuşoğlu. Of course, he is not attending the ceremony to make election propaganda. On the contrary, he has arrived in the city to embrace the EU values and curse racism. Furthermore, he will show the entire world once again that Turkey has not forgotten its citizens subjected to racist assaults and does not leave them alone.

We are deeply grieved remembering the Solingen victims. Our citizens, their houses, associatio

- s, businesses and mosques have lately been subjected to growing number of attacks both by neo-Nazis and the PKK terrorist group.

People reading my columns can remember the statistics I presented that portray the gravity of the threat. Also, I previously conveyed the experiences of our citizens who were subjected to such racist assaults.

Although election propaganda for the upcoming June 24 elections is forbidden in Germany, the opposition parties can freely organize election rallies and meetings while organizations of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) are being restricted in the country.

Here is the latest example. The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Istanbul Provincial Chair Canan Kaftancıoğlu is scheduled to deliver a speech in Bergisch-Galdbach, Germany on June 3. I wonder h

ow German authorities will respond to this event for the CHP. So far, they have condoned numerous CHP events in the country. We will see what happens this time.

Graver than all of this, the PKK terrorist group, which has killed thousands in Turkey and have recently been attacking Turkish-owned mosques, associations and neighborhoods with high Turkish populations in Germany and Belgium, is creating election propaganda for the pro-PKK Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).

A rally organized last Saturday in Cologne, Germany was overtly a PKK organization. As Turkey responded harshly to the rally, Cologne police restricted the speeches of HDP deputies and candidates at the last minute. But the other speakers also delivered open HDP propaganda. Also, to prevent PKK proponents from engaging in terror propaganda, the organizers of the rally warned that flags or placards symbolizing any group other than the HDP must not be carried. Even this warning was enough to prove who was behind this rally.

As can be seen, we are being subjected to practices with double standards in which only the AK Party is restricted. If there is a ban on election campaigns in Germany, it must be for all the political parties. But sadly, we are witnessing that this is not the case in practice. The Germans of Turkish descent are very concerned about this situation, but such double standards consolidate their determination. So, there is no doubt that the restrictions on the AK Party in Germany will actually increase the vote share of the party.