Seeing Turkish names on garbage cans as part of an anti-litter campaign, Turks living in Germany's Duisburg were understandably angry, claiming the slogans encouraging the use of garbage cans were "racist." One slogan reads "mach et, Mehmet" (dump your garbage here, Mehmet), while another suggests "Gülcan" to do the same.
Campaign officials told German media outlets that they were surprised about the reaction and claimed the slogans were not exclusively limited to common Turkish names and original German names were also used as slogans, denying that Turkish names implied veiled racism against the Turkish community, one of the largest expat communities in the European country.
Social media users denounced the campaign while some users with the names Mehmet and Gülcan shared their photos with the garbage cans. A Twitter user wrote that the Duisburg municipality apparently thought it was only Turks who threw their trash on the ground instead of in garbage cans.
