{"id":78562,"date":"2024-06-22T04:52:10","date_gmt":"2024-06-22T04:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/22\/for-turkish-germans-heart-overrules-home-at-euro-2024\/"},"modified":"2024-06-22T04:52:10","modified_gmt":"2024-06-22T04:52:10","slug":"for-turkish-germans-heart-overrules-home-at-euro-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/22\/for-turkish-germans-heart-overrules-home-at-euro-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"For Turkish Germans, Heart Overrules Home at Euro 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/22\/multimedia\/22soccer-turkish-01-jvql\/22soccer-turkish-01-jvql-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"For Turkish Germans, Heart Overrules Home at Euro 2024\" title=\"For Turkish Germans, Heart Overrules Home at Euro 2024\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Erkan Aykan does not require a second invitation to share his claim to fame. He grew up in a Turkish family in Gelsenkirchen, an industrial city nestled in the heart of Germany\u2019s Ruhr valley. Somewhat more famously, so did Ilkay Gundogan, the captain of the country\u2019s soccer team. \u201cI know his cousins,\u201d he said, proudly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Listening politely, perhaps a touch indulgently, his brother Talha waits for Erkan to finish, and then immediately one-ups him. \u201cHe was in my class at school,\u201d Talha said of Gundogan. \u201cI played soccer with him when we were kids.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The speed with which both men set about establishing their Gundogan credentials illustrated their pride in having a connection with the Germany captain, and their satisfaction at seeing him now leading their country at the European Championship.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Yet that loyalty goes only so far. Both brothers want Gundogan to do well this month, they said. But like millions of other Germans of Turkish descent, they want someone else to win the tournament. \u201cOnly Turkey,\u201d they said in unison when asked who they would be supporting in Euro 2024. \u201cWe live here. We were born here. But our hearts are in Turkey.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That sense of shared pride \u2014 obvious in the Turkish flags and Turkey jerseys that are omnipresent this month in Germany\u2019s streets and stadiums \u2014 reflects the sheer scale of Germany\u2019s Turkish, or Turkish-descended, population. At more than seven million, Germany\u2019s Turkish community makes up the biggest minority group in Europe\u2019s largest country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">All across it, many Turkish Germans have considered the same questions of allegiance and identity as the Aykan brothers, and have come to the same decision.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWhen we qualified, I told my German friends that now they had two host countries,\u201d said Hamit Altintop, a decorated former player who is now the technical director of the Turkish soccer federation. \u201cWe are co-hosts now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Germany\u2019s Turkish community is a legacy of the years when the nation opened its doors to guest workers \u2014 or gastarbeiter<em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\"> \u2014 <\/em>to help rebuild its shattered country after World War II.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Many of those workers stayed, starting families that now extend into their second, third or fourth generations. Every major city in Germany, and plenty of minor ones, has at least one neighborhood with a distinctly Turkish feel, where children grow up in homes not dissimilar to Altintop\u2019s, in Gelsenkirchen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe topics are Turkish, the food is Turkish, the culture is more Turkish,\u201d he said, casting his mind back to his childhood. In Berlin now, he said, there are plenty of people for whom the \u201cbarbershop is Turkish, your supermarket is Turkish, your dinner is in a Turkish restaurant.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It is not surprising, then, that when Turkey finally took to the field in this summer\u2019s European Championship, its first match had the feel of a home game: Aside from one stand saved for fans from its opponent, Georgia, Borussia Dortmund\u2019s Westfalenstadion was a sea of Turkish red and white.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Like Gelsenkirchen, Dortmund has a considerable Turkish community, one sufficiently large enough that Bulent Borekcilik \u2014 the wildly popular Turkish pastry company \u2014 has a branch in the city. It has only two in Germany. Staff at the restaurant confirmed that people travel from all over the Ruhr valley for a taste of a place that feels like, but may never have been, home.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Before the game, thousands of fans dressed in the country\u2019s national colors \u2014 including the Aykan brothers \u2014 arrived at a meeting point a little more than a mile from the stadium, singing and swaying to Turkish dance and folk standards, including an ode to the nation\u2019s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Before setting off on a long, slow and extremely loud march to the stadium, the crowd paused to sing the Turkish national anthem.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">And yet for all the patriotic fervor, members of the crowd frequently spoke to each other not in Turkish, but in German. As the throng snaked through the rain-lashed streets of the city, some drank J\u00e4germeister, schnapps and cans of strong beer. In almost every way, the scene felt distinctly German.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cHaving two hearts in one chest is not unusual for migrants anywhere in the world,\u201d said Aladin El-Mafaalani, a professor of the sociology of migration and education at the Technical University of Dortmund.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cOne thing that connects the different generations of Turkish immigrants is Turkish soccer: club soccer, but of course also the national team,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is part of your identity, your social bond. Most people of Turkish origin tend to support Turkey, but that does not mean they are against Germany.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In an admittedly unscientific survey of the huge crowd that had gathered to watch Turkey play, that sentiment held true. \u201cGermany is our home, but our hearts are for Turkey,\u201d said Salih Halil, who had traveled to the game with a group of 10 friends, all in their 20s, from Koblenz.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Halil is hedging his bets in the Euros: He will, he said, support both Turkey and Germany. But when pushed, he admitted \u2014 like the majority of Turkish-German fans \u2014 that he would go for Turkey. \u201cThe heart overrules the head,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That phenomenon can be a little baffling to those whose affiliations are rather more straightforward. Zeynep Bakan, 25, who works in the German soccer museum in Dortmund, was wearing German team apparel, but only as a professional necessity: She is from Istanbul.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThey go to German schools, they go out to German clubs, they watch German soccer, they\u2019re so focused on German things,\u201d she said of Germans with Turkish heritage. \u201cAnd then at the end of the day, they are saying they are Turkish.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">She emphasized her point with one of the museum\u2019s exhibits: a photograph of Mesut \u00d6zil, a key member of the Germany team that won the 2014 World Cup, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zdf.de\/nachrichten\/politik\/oezil-erdogan-tuerkei-wahl-100.html\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">posing with the Turkish president<\/a>, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in 2018.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The image caused considerable controversy at the time \u2014 the backlash was so severe that \u00d6zil quit the German national team over it, saying he was sick of being treated as a \u201cGerman when we win, and an immigrant when we lose.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Gundogan was jeered for months for posing in a similar photograph, but Ms. Bakan said that she believed the image itself encapsulated why so many second-, third- or fourth-generation Turks feel the pull of their ancestral homeland. \u201cThey are this photo,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Bakan, who breezily reeled off key details of \u00d6zil\u2019s career, said she felt he had erred by posing for the photograph, effectively torching his Germany career. But for some, \u00d6zil\u2019s description of his treatment as a Turkish German mirrored their own feelings, and explained why they root for Turkey over the country that is their home.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Others, though, feel a different pull. Five members of Turkey\u2019s squad at this tournament were born in Germany. Like Gundogan, the Turkey captain Hakan Calhanoglu grew up in Gelsenkirchen. (Several more Turkey players were born in the Netherlands and Austria, as were many fans in Dortmund.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">All of them might have followed a different path, or represented another country, had things gone differently. For a player, that choice is a difficult, intensely personal decision, one that often has to be made while still in their teens.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Altintop, the Turkish federation official, found it an easy call. \u201cI said, \u2018Thank you, I\u2019m Turkish,\u2019 that\u2019s it,\u201d he said. But many others wrestle with it. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For fans, though, the fact that they are both Turkish and German, or Turkish and Dutch, or Turkish and Austrian, serves to make their soccer heroes more relatable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe can identify more with players who are like us,\u201d said Okan Odabas, 27, of Freiburg, a city close to Germany\u2019s border with Switzerland. \u201cAll these youngsters playing for Turkey now were also born and raised in Germany.\u201d In Turkey\u2019s squad, they can see a team that represents them, blended identities and all.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For a long time, Professor El-Mafaalani said, the idea of pledging loyalty to two places \u2014 to Germany and to Turkey, to Germany and to anywhere else \u2014 was \u201cseen as a problem.\u201d It was assumed, he said, that there would be \u201cconflicts of interest.\u201d Those who live it, though, those who have come to terms with being Turkish, German and Turkish-German, do not see it that way.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt was assumed that it was either\/or,\u201d Professor El-Mafaalani said. \u201cInstead of both.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/22\/world\/europe\/european-championship-euros-germany-turkey.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Erkan Aykan does not require a second invitation to share his claim to fame. He grew up in a Turkish family in Gelsenkirchen, an industrial city nestled in the heart of Germany\u2019s Ruhr valley. Somewhat more famously, so did Ilkay Gundogan, the captain of the country\u2019s soccer team. \u201cI know his cousins,\u201d he said, proudly. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/22\/multimedia\/22soccer-turkish-01-jvql\/22soccer-turkish-01-jvql-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3749,36426,2462,148,70571,18526],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78562"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78562"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78564,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78562\/revisions\/78564"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}