İdil Baydar, a Berliner cabaret artist of Turkish descent, has revealed that she is receiving messages threatening her with death, Deutsche Welle Turkish service reported on Wednesday.
“Leave Germany alive while you have the chance,” one of the messages said.
The threats are not confined to her alone; some of them also concern her family.
“You disgusting fat Turkish pig. We’ll shoot you and Halise Baydar, just like in New Zealand,” another message read, referring to her mother.
Baydar shared the messages on her Facebook account.
Speaking to DW, she expressed her view that the messages are coming from members of the extreme right.
Baydar also said she is forwarding the messages to Mehmet Daimagüler, a lawyer for the victims of NSU, an underground right-wing group that was allegedly responsible for the assassination of eight Turks and two others.
The senders have not been revealed since their IP addresses were found to be encrypted.
“I spoke to my lawyer, Daimagüler. He said the police department in Berlin is trying to transfer the case to the department in Hessen, where I currently live,” Baydar said.
“But it’s not sensible to redirect my case to Hessen because there’s a great problem with right-wing police officers here. The investigation can be carried out anywhere in Germany since the messages are dispatched via the Internet or mobile phones. But we’ll wait for the investigation and refrain from making judgments in advance.”
“I went to the police department responsible for political crimes, and they said they wouldn’t be able to find the culprits. It seems that their capabilities are quite limited.”
“I didn’t feel comfortable going to the police. The situation is a difficult one considering the extremist police officers. Also, we immigrants know that we won’t be treated in the same way as Germans.”