Apparently these parades are an indispensable accessory of Turkish weddings: wide tires, roaring exhaust noises and reckless driving. Turkish bridal couples have become a life-threatening feature on Munich’s roads.
The drivers race at high speed honking in convoys through the city. They not only block highways, but men shoot in the air with firearms. And a hard crackdown by police has had zero effect on the Turkish community.
The Bavarian police is actually known nationwide for their robust crackdowns. Especially when in action, they have earned a legendary reputation. The latest development is therefore all the more surprising, as is the tone of a senior police director in a letter to the Turkish Consul General Mehmet Günay.
The Director at the Department of Operations of the Police Headquarters in Munich, sent the note to the Turkish official on April 25, 2019. The subject line reads: “Car Corps in connection with Turkish weddings”. Berlin weekly Junge Freiheit reported on the letter.
First of all, the high-ranking Bavarian police officer explained the police situation in North Rhine-Westphalia to the Turkish Consul General. In particular, he noted the dangerous motorcades, “which take place in the context of Turkish wedding celebrations”, and cause significant security disturbances.
After this detour, the Bavarian official finally gets to Bavaria. Here, too, the police have been increasingly confronted with similar issues since 2018, he writes.
The letter is infused with politically correct notions, and the Director continues in the fourth paragraph of the letter: “Of course we are aware that the aforementioned celebrations are particularly suitable to evoke a boisterous mood at the respective wedding parties. At the same time, however, public safety and order must not be impaired under any circumstances. In particular, firing weapons can quickly provoke uncontrollable panic reactions, given past terrorist attacks and the resulting fears of the population.”
He does not mention the anti-social, life-threatening and punishable behavior of wedding guests on the streets. Instead the problems seems to be a population too sensitized by terrorist attacks.
The letter concludes with the statement: “… and as far as possible, we ask that you have a positive influence on the Turkish fellow citizens in Munich.” The question however remains on how the Consul General should influence the Turks?
A spokesman assured the weekly: “The Munich police will, while understanding rites and tradition, not tolerate such road hazards […] In certain cases, it is even possible to secure the vehicles used.”
From January 2018 to May 2019, the police in Munich counted around 35 registered wedding parades. On April 21 this year alone there were three such illegal Turkish wedding parades.
In another development, Mesut Ozil, German 2014 World Cup winner called on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as the legal witness to his wedding.
Ozil, a third-generation Turkish-German, sparked controversy in his birth country in March when he announced Erdogan would be his legal witness.