A brutal shooting took place in the German town of Hanau three years ago but the families of the victims are still waiting for justice and calling on the federal government to keep its promises to shed light on the terrorist attack.
Hayrettin Saraçoğlu, the brother of Fatih Saraçoğlu, who was among the killed during the racist attack in Hanau, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that the case has yet to be brought to light as all questions related to the shooting remain unanswered.
“Many promises and lots of speeches have been made, but there is still no result,” he said.
Saraçoğlu stressed that authorities had to answer questions such as "Why was the police late in going to the murderer's house?" "Why wasn't the emergency phone picked up?" and "How did the killer hold a firearms license if he was mentally ill?”
On Feb. 19, 2020, far-right extremist Tobias Rathjen attacked two cafes in the city of Hanau, killing nine young people and injuring five others. All the victims had migrant backgrounds, four of whom were Turks.
Before the attack, the far-right extremist posted videos on the internet, detailing his xenophobic views. He later killed his mother and himself.
On Sunday, a commemoration ceremony was held in Germany and Türkiye to mark the third anniversary of the attack.
An official ceremony was held at Heumarkt Square in Hanau, with the attendance of German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, Hesse state premier Boris Rhein, Hanau Mayor Claus Kaminsky, and Türkiye's Consul General in Frankfurt Erdem Tuncer.
In her speech, Faeser said that she shares the grief of the families, stressing that far-right extremism threatens the peaceful coexistence of society.
Kaminsky, for his part, called for fighting racism and hate speech while the relatives of the victims condemned racism and xenophobia in their speeches.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry, too, paid tribute to the victims via Twitter: "We commemorate all victims, especially our citizens, who lost their lives as a result of the racist and anti-Islamic attack in Hanau, Germany, three years ago, with respect and mercy.”
Both the families and experts since then attributed the attack on rampant Islamophobia in the country.
German authorities recorded 152 Islamophobic attacks, while at least seven people were injured in the first six months of 2022.
According to Süleyman Demir, project director at the anti-discrimination group "Inssan," many Muslims do not report incidents to the police, thinking their complaints will not be taken seriously.
Demir also argued in a November 2022 interview that police officers are trained on transphobia or anti-Semitism but not on tackling anti-Muslim crimes.
Germany has the second-largest Muslim population in Western Europe after France with total inhabitants of over 84 million.
Among the country's nearly 5.5 million Muslims, 3 million are of Turkish descent.
