Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Merkel urges Turkish-rooted residents to be loyal to Germany; coincidentally, Germans will be asked to stockpile food and water ‘in case of a catastrophe’ or 'armed attack'

This does not sound good.
BERLIN (AP) — Chancellor Angela Merkel urged people with Turkish roots who are longtime German residents to be loyal to Germany, while pledging in comments published Tuesday also to listen to their concerns.

Merkel’s comments come during a tense period in German-Turkish relations and amid concerns that domestic political arguments in Turkey could spill onto German streets. [...]

Germany is home to roughly 3 million people with Turkish roots. [...]

On July 31, up to 40,000 people rallied in Cologne to denounce the failed coup in Turkey and show support for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. That show of support, though it was peaceful, caused unease among some in Germany.

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(TIME) Germany is planning to urge its citizens to stockpile food, water and other supplies in the event of a catastrophe or armed attack.

According to a report by German broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW), citing the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper, the move would be the first of its kind since the end of the Cold War.

The proposal is reportedly contained in a government civil-defense-strategy document, which says that people should stock 10 days worth of food and a sufficient supply of water, energy, money and medicine that would allow them to stay put long enough for the government to respond.

The mood in Germany has been unsettled recently following a number of horrific incidents. In the latest violence, on July 24, a Syrian suicide bomber injured 15 people at a music festival in the central German town of Ansbach. The same day, a Syrian refugee killed a woman and injured two others with a machete in Reutlingen. Just days previous, an ISIS-inspired attacker was shot dead after stabbing several people on a train in the south of the country.

The huge influx of refugees — Germany accepted more than a million last year — has sparked fears among many Germans that terrorists have entered the country under the guise of seeking asylum.

Further details about Germany’s civil-defense strategy will be released on Wednesday, DW says, adding that its release comes amid “a raft of new security measures in the country.”

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