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German couple found dead in Turkish resort town

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The police found a German couple dead, with their hands tied and mouths taped shut, in an apartment the two were renting in the resort town of Alanya 190441_newsdetailon Thursday.

Relatives of the couple could not reach them for a few days and the police were contacted to investigate. Unable to enter the apartment in Alanya, a town in the Mediterranean province of Antalya, police broke down the door and entered the unit to find the German couple dead.

The couple, Kerstin (50) and Peter Horvath (65), arrived in Alanya last month on vacation.

Police noted that the two were killed after sustaining blows to their heads. The couple was sent to the Alanya Municipality morgue. Experts believe the two might have been killed two weeks ago.

The gardener of the apartment, Şeref Ö., said he last saw the couple on Aug. 16. He was taken to Mahmutlar Gendarmerie Command to testify. Security services also seized security camera footage from the apartment complex.

German opposition to Turkey’s EU membership rises: poll

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BERLIN – Reuters

             n_67092_1    Thousands of expatriate Turks attended Turkish PM Erdoğan’s Cologne rally last weekend. REUTERS Photo

A growing majority of Germans are opposed to Turkey entering the European Union, according to a poll published days after Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan made a controversial speech to Turks in Cologne.

The survey by Forsa for Stern magazine found 69 percent of Germans oppose Turkey joining the EU, up from 52 percent who   were against it in a 2005 survey. The number in favour of Turkey joining the EU fell to 26 percent from 43 percent in 2005, according to the poll released on Tuesday.

Many EU governments support Turkey’s ambitions to join, arguing that Europe should capitalise on Ankara’s influence in the Middle East. However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling conservative party has long been opposed.

Germany has always had doubts about allowing a largely Muslim country of 76 million people into the European club, fearing that cultural differences and its size will make it too difficult to integrate.

Ankara began negotiations to join the EU in 2005, 18 years after applying. But a series of political obstacles, notably over the divided island of Cyprus, and resistance to Turkish membership in Germany and France, have slowed progress.

On Saturday, Erdoğan told a cheering arena of 16,000 diaspora supporters in Germany to integrate but not assimilate in a defiant hour-long speech. Some 45,000 protesters marched against the Turkish premier’s appearance.

Erdoğan has often addressed mass audiences of expatriate Turks when visiting Germany in rousing patriotic affairs with thousands waving the Turkish flag.

Some 3 million people of Turkish origin live in Germany and 1.4 million Turkish citizens can vote, a number equivalent to the electorate of Turkey’s fifth-largest city Adana.

Erdoğan’s handling of protests against his government in the past year and his two-week closure of social networking site Twitter and block on video-sharing platform YouTube this year drew criticism at home and abroad, including from the German government.

Turkey has said it remains determined to continue on the path towards EU accession but government officials from Erdoğan on down have voiced frustration at what they see as unnecessary bureaucratic and political obstacles.

May/28/2014