By Hambersom Aghbashian
Özcan Mutlu (born on January 10, 1968 in Kelkit – Turkey) is a Turkish-German Green Party politician. Mutlu moved to Germany in 1973, and became a German citizen in 1990. He finished his training as information electrician at the Berlin Institute of Technology (1985-1989). Afterwards, he studied electrical engineering at Beuth University of Applied Sciences Berlin (1989-1993) and graduated as engineer of communication and electronics. He combined an internship with a stay abroad in Omaha, (USA). After that, he worked in a telecommunication company as engineer from (1993-1999). Özcan Mutlu joined the Green Party in 1990, and was elected into the district assembly of Kreuzberg. He entered the regional parliament of Berlin in 1999 representing Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district. He was re-elected in 2006 and 2011. During this period, he served in a number of parliamentary commissions, responsible particularly for policies of education, integration and migration as well as policies for Europe and Turkey. Following the 2013 federal election, Mutlu won a seat in the Bundestag. He is married and has two children.
Quoting Reuters, Haaretz.com wrote, “The president of Germany’s parliament Norbert Lammert condemned threats against German lawmakers of Turkish origin after the Bundestag last week passed a resolution declaring the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces a genocide. Ankara rejects the idea that the killings of Christian Armenians during WWI amounted to a genocide. Following the resolution there have been death threats and verbal attacks against German politicians with Turkish roots. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said German lawmakers of Turkish origin who voted for the resolution have tainted blood and that their blood must be tested in a lab. The president of Germany’s parliament commented saying “I wouldn’t have thought it possible that in the 21st Century, a democratically elected president would link his criticism of democratically elected lawmakers in the German Bundestag with doubts about their Turkish descent and describe their blood as tainted,”. (1) Özcan Mutlu is one of the Bundestag members of Turkish descent who voted for the resolution.
“Bundestag’s Genocide Recognition: A First Step”. This was Muriel Miral-Weissbach’s article concerning the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the German Parliament, posted on anca.org on June 5, 2015, where she described in details how the voting went through and quoted many German PMs and officials about the voting and Turkey’s reaction to it. She added that most serious was the tone and thrust of remarks made by Turkish officials like “It is well known whose mouthpiece they are,” “They are the long arm in Germany of the separatist terror organizations in this country,” with reference to the PKK , “Their blood ought to be tested in a lab” etc., and people were called for violence against the Bundestag member’s of Turkish descent. She mentioned also that the parliamentarians are taking this seriously. Özcan Mutlu from the Green Party, told TV viewers on June 5 that he feared for his life, since “This quality [of threat] I have never experienced. The danger is that some crazy nuts, hearing this talk, think that they’ve gotten some orders from above. “This way so many people have been killed in Turkey,” (2)
On June 6, 2016 DW.com wrote: Amid the ongoing row over Germany’s decision to refer to the Armenian massacre as “genocide,” Berlin has hit back at Ankara. German MPs with Turkish roots have called for action from Merkel after receiving death threats. Merkel’s spokesman said the Bundestag “had reached a sovereign decision.” and added “That must be respected,” The comments from Berlin came in light of Turkey’s reaction to Germany’s decision to pass a resolution which refers to the mass deaths of 1.5 million Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as “genocide.”As the successor state to the Ottoman Empire, Turkey officially denies that the events that started in 1915 amounted to genocide. During an interview with German news program “Tagesschau”, fellow Green politicians Özcan Mutlu said he had received “hundreds if not thousands of emails with messages of hate or death threats.” “As an MP, insults and threats have started to become normal,” he said. “But this takes things to a new level.” Mutlu, who also appeared on the tweet posted by Ankara’s mayor, called on the German chancellor to take a stand against Erdogan and “make it clear that this has gone too far.” (3)
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1- http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/1.724099
2- https://anca.org/bundestags-genocide-recognition-a-first-step/
3- http://www.dw.com/en/berlin-rebuffs-turkey-in-armenian-genocide-row-after-green-mp-receives-death-threats/a-19310281
