Germany admits its crime in Namibia, so has it stopped its support for Turkey, which committed more than 35 massacres against the Kurds, Armenians, Syriacs and Arabs?!!
Special / Geostrategic team for studies
The cognitive mentality, which has come to dominate the mentality of peaceful societies in developed western countries, has become a civilized feature to get rid of legacies and criminal legacies committed in previous eras by the armies of these countries, as frankness of facts and its results has become necessary to overcome the previous criminal mentality on the one hand, and build new paths Relationships based on civilized values and common interests between these countries and peoples.
And Germany, in addition to the presence of some equal points in its dark past, as it tries, through openness to reality and recognition of it and its actual results in the region, to return to building peaceful and correct relations with those countries, based on transcending the past, and this requires advanced courage and mentality that is now managing Western societies. And if the German people succeeded during the past seven decades in transcending that era and correcting its path towards building relations and interests with the European and global environment. This naturally helps in expanding German economic interests that depend on trade, markets and the work of companies that have major countries in strengthening the German economy.
However, in addition to recognizing the massacre it committed in Namibia, it must also pressure countries that are still committing the same massacres in other regions, and violating all international norms and conventions related to human rights, freedom of opinion and democracy, and therefore the nature of German relations with Turkey, which pursues a policy of mass murder and liquidation Ethnicity against the Kurds is a real dilemma to give a dark picture of Germany, which in turn is looking to overcome the criminal past, while it still maintains close and deep relations with Turkey, which has the largest criminal record in the Middle East.
In this vein, the Turkish role can be highlighted as one of Germany's most important allies in the Middle East, as the Turkish regime, since the era before the First World War and to this day, has committed dozens of massacres, each of which outweighs all the massacres committed by the Germans in Namibia, and thus this is not enough. German recognition of its crime in the African Republic of Namibia, but it must also reconsider its relations with Turkey, which continue unceasingly in committing the most heinous crimes and abuses against the Kurds and the entire Middle East, including the continuation of daily violations against the occupied Kurdish areas in northern Syria, and what the region witnesses The Afrin and Ras al-Ain / Serêkanê regions, from the escape of extremist groups, their training, arming, and use of kidnapping civilians, extortion operations, identity killings and ethnic liquidation, is an example of the magnitude of these Turkish crimes that require Germany's move towards limiting its relations with this fascist entity.
Stations in the Turkish attack on Afrin Funerals of Afrin people: The announced figures for the number of victims of the Turkish attack on Afrin vary, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in the British capital London, confirmed in separate data the occurrence of hundreds of victims among children and women / In the picture, women from Afrin mourn the victims Those whose coffins were found in Kurdish banners 15.3.2018.
More than 100 years after the crimes of the German colonial power in what is now Namibia, the federal government recognizes the atrocities committed against the Herero and Nama ethnic groups as genocide. However, the historic agreement is not only viewed positively. An overview.
It took the government delegations from Namibia and Germany almost six years to agree on a reconciliation agreement. With the unification, Germany now recognizes the crimes of the German Reich as a colonial power and the mass murder of tens of thousands of Herero and Nama as genocide. The Federal Republic wants to officially ask their descendants for forgiveness and support them with compensation payments amounting to billions.
"I am happy and grateful that we have succeeded in reaching an agreement with Namibia on how to deal with the darkest chapter of our shared history," said Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas when the historic agreement was announced. This makes Germany the first former colonial power to conclude such an agreement with a former colony. However, there is also criticism - from Namibia as well as from Germany.
What is the historical background?
The German Empire was a colonial power in what is now Namibia from 1884 to 1915, at that time under the name Deutsch-Südwestafrika. The rule of the German occupiers was marked by oppression, exploitation and violence. This culminated in the brutal suppression of the uprisings of two ethnic groups: the Herero and Nama.
The Herero uprising began in January 1904. The starting point was, among other things, disputes with German settlers, who claimed more and more land for themselves, and the racist oppression by the colonial administration. Six months later, in July 1904, groups of the Nama began to violently defend themselves against the colonial rulers.
On October 2nd, the governor and commander-in-chief of German South West Africa, Lothar von Trotha, issued his "extermination order". In it he announced that the Herero had to leave the territory of the colony. “Every Herero within the German border is shot with or without a rifle, with or without cattle. I no longer take in women and children, drive them back to their people or have them shot at. "
In the war that lasted until 1908, German troops killed around 65,000 out of 80,000 Herero and at least 10,000 out of 20,000 Nama. Germany's now admission of guilt relates to this mass murder, which is considered to be the first genocide of the 20th century.
What are the key points of the agreement?
The agreement fulfills the three demands that Namibia made in the negotiations with Germany:
Recognizing the crimes against the Herero and Nama as genocide,
an apology from the German state and a request for forgiveness from the Namibian state and the descendants of the victims
as well as compensation payments.
The Federal Foreign Office has been using the term genocide in its general parlance for the war of extermination in Namibia since 2015. Now the atrocities are officially referred to as genocide. The official request for forgiveness is reported to be made by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in a solemn act in the Parliament of Namibia.
Until recently there was a dispute about the amount of the compensation payments. With the agreement, Germany has now committed to pay 1.1 billion euros. The money is to be invested over a period of 30 years primarily in projects in the Herero and Nama settlement areas. The aim is to promote vocational training, agriculture, rural infrastructure and water supply, as well as land reforms.
In particular, the ownership structure of land in Namibia is evidence of colonial exploitation and oppression to this day. The land that was expropriated during colonial times is still predominantly in the hands of white settlers, many of whom are of German origin.
Difficult negotiations over our colonial legacy: Secretary of State Michelle Montevering (right) and Minister of Culture of Namibia Katrina Hanse Heimarwa. (Photo by Alliance / DPA / Bernd von Guterzinka)
Why did the negotiations take so long?
Negotiations for a reconciliation agreement between the German and Namibian governments lasted almost six years. Representatives from Herero and Nama were closely involved in the negotiations. The delegations converged in nine rounds of negotiations, alternately in Berlin and the Namibian capital Windhoek. The negotiator on the Namibian side was Ueriuka Tjikuua, himself a Herero, on the German side the CDU politician Ruprecht Polenz.
Initially, there was a long argument about formulations. Germany was ready to recognize the genocide, but no legal terms should be mentioned in an agreement that could be justiciable in any form before a court - and from which reparation claims could possibly be derived. The term reparations was also considered highly problematic from the point of view of lawyers, explains Dlf correspondent Christiane Habermalz, who has accompanied the negotiations from the start.
The federal government had agreed to an “unconditional apology” to the Namibian government, its people and the affected communities, but did not want to use the term “reparations”, Namibia's President Hage Geingob complained in mid-2020. The term “healing of wounds” was also rejected as inadequate.
One finally agreed, among other things, on the formulation “atrocities which, from today's perspective, are described as genocide”. In legal terms, this can be justified by the fact that the legal term genocide did not even exist at the beginning of the 20th century, at the time of the atrocities against the Herero and Nama. It was not until 1948 that the UN General Assembly passed the “Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide” as a consequence of the Holocaust, thereby making genocide a criminal offense.
The convention does not apply retrospectively, which is why recognition of the genocide does not have any legal consequences for Germany. Against this background, the Federal Government has repeatedly emphasized that, from its point of view, there is no legal right to compensation. She sees the fact that she is now paying a sum of 1.1 billion euros as a political and moral obligation. It was a "gesture of recognition of the immeasurable suffering that was inflicted on the victims," said Foreign Minister Maas.
How is the agreement assessed?
Initial indications of the agreement had already triggered criticism from some representatives of the Herero and Nama. It was nothing more than a German PR coup and an act of fraud by the Namibian government, according to a statement by the Ovaherero Traditional Authority and Nama Traditional Leaders Association. Both were critical of the negotiations from the start. The heads of both organizations, Vekuii Rukoro and David Frederic, had tried in the meantime to force their participation in the dialogue at government level by judicial means.
German observers also complained about the exclusion of various Herero and Nama voices. The recognition that the atrocities were genocide and the apology of high-ranking representatives of the Federal Republic in Namibia is important, said the German-Namibian Green politician Ottmar von Holtz in the Dlf: However, both the German and Namibian sides made the mistake of “not ensuring that all voices are heard from the outset”.
The historian Jürgen Zimmerer made a similar statement in Deutschlandfunk Kultur. One could not talk about reconciliation and reconciliation without the self-elected representatives of the ethnic groups concerned sitting at the negotiating table, he criticized. However, it is positive that the federal government has now admitted that it was a genocide and that one must apologize.
Financial support is also better than worst fears. “But it's not that terrific either,” emphasizes Zimmerer. "It is roughly the same amount that Germany has received in the last 30 years as German development aid." The 1.1 billion should be paid in addition to development aid, but how high it would be in the coming years would still be known not fixed.
A memorial commemorating the Herero and Nama genocides perpetrated by German colonial forces in the center of the Namibian capital, Windhoek (dpa/Jürgen Bätz)
What consequences could the agreement have?
The reconciliation agreement with Namibia could serve as a model for further agreements. After all, from 1884 the German Empire was also an occupying power in other areas, for example in Cameroon, Togo, German East Africa (Tanzania), in the Chinese Tsingtao and on the Pacific islands - most of them also committed terrible crimes.
In the successor states I will be paying close attention to the reconciliation agreement with Namibia, says Dlf correspondent Christiane Habermalz - and then possibly striving for similar agreements.
Information about the agreement and its routes: (Christian Habermals, Wolf Wild, DLF, DKultur, DPA, AFP, EPD, KNA)
