Mesut Özil, the politician
What the former German footballer's stances teach us about modern Germany and Erdoğan's pan-Turkish mission.
On March 22, 2025, the farewell match of Brazilian Werder Bremen legend Diego Ribas da Cunha took place at the Weserstadion in Bremen.
The match ended 6-5 for the Werder Bremen Legends, who prevailed over Diego's All-Stars. The Brazilian scored one goal for the All-Stars and two for the Werder Legends.
There were many well-known faces, both from international football and from Werder Bremen.
But among the former players of the Green and Whites, the only one who, in terms of quality and career, was better than Diego was missing.
Mesut Özil.
The club's official statement was as follows:
“Together with Diego, we decided not to include Mesut in the guest list, because in recent times he has had a development that is not in line with the values of Werder Bremen.”
The development that the club refers to is the beginning of Mesut Özil's political career—specifically, becoming a member of the Central Decision-Making Council of the AKP. Recep Erdoğan's party.
In reality, Mesut Özil's political career began many years ago.
Specifically, with a photo.
(AFP Photo)
Farewell to the German national team
The photo featured Özil, his teammate Ilkay Gündoğan and the current president of Türkiye, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. It was taken in May 2018, a month before the start of the World Cup in Russia.
The two players received fierce criticism from the media and German society. They were accused of not being part of Germany, and their integration was questioned. Moreover, they were accused of supporting Erdoğan's policies. Although football in Germany is one of the most politicized in Europe (I talked about it in this article), the - utopian - expectation of the media and society is that players do not mix politics and football. The first to do so are very often the fans. Both positively and negatively.
The criticism and discussion about the photo could have ended in a few days, but the poor result of the German national team meant that the event had unexpected consequences. Arriving as reigning champions in Russia, the Germans had the worst performance in their modern history. They failed to advance from the groups and qualify for the round of 16.
Instead of focusing on the team’s poor performance, some in the national team focused on Özil. Oliver Bierhoff, the team’s general manager, suggested that Özil should have been dropped from the team. Reinhard Grindel, head of the German Football Association, publicly asked Özil to provide further explanations about the photo.
Shortly after the elimination and personal criticism, Özil tweeted his decision to leave the German national team. One particular thing about his statements was that they were in English and not in German.
Özil first explained that the photo with Erdoğan had no political value and that it did not symbolize his support for the president’s party. According to Özil, the meeting was about himself and his family.
He then used harsh words against Reinhard Grindel and the German integration model:
“In the eyes of Grindel and his supporters, I am German when we win, but an immigrant when we lose. This is because despite paying taxes in Germany, donating facilities to German schools and winning the World Cup with Germany in 2014, I am still not accepted in society. I am treated as an outsider.”
Words that bring to mind those of Albert Einstein, who said in Paris:
“If my theory of relativity proves successful, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare me a citizen of the world. If my theory proves false, France will say I am a German and Germany will declare me a Jew.”
Turks in Germany
To better understand Özil's statements, it is necessary to analyze the history of Turkish emigration to Germany, how it has evolved and what impact it has had on German society.
The first Turks to reach Germany did so in the 1960s, thanks to a bilateral agreement between the German and Turkish governments. Germany was experiencing an economic miracle and was in dire need of manpower. In addition to the one with Türkiye, the German government signed labour recruitment agreements with Italy (1955), Spain and Greece (1960).
The aim was to hire foreign citizens and give them short-term contracts, with the belief that once the work was finished, they would return to their countries. They were given the pseudonym of ‘Gastarbeiter’.
‘Gast’ in German means guest. While ‘Arbeiter’ means worker.
At the time of the planned return, German employers expressed their willingness to keep the foreign workers they had trained, and the workers also wanted to stay in Germany. They had jobs, an income, and saw the possibility of laying the foundation for a better future. The planned return did not materialize for all of them. Some decided to go back, some to stay.
The recruitment of Gastarbeiter ended in 1973, and from that time onwards, most immigration occurred through family reunification and asylum requests. As for the Turks, 678,702 men and 146,681 women moved to Germany in those years, for a total of 825,383 people.
In the 1990s, about 70% of the Turkish community was born in Germany, the children of immigrants who arrived between 1961 and 1973. Today, there are people of Turkish origin who represent the fourth or fifth generation.
The relationship between the Turkish community and Germany has always been complicated. According to secret reports, in 1982, then Chancellor Helmut Kohl had planned a massive repatriation of the Turks present on German soil. A figure that was supposed to be around 50%. According to Kohl, Germany was not able to assimilate all the Turks who lived within its borders.
A statement that shows geopolitical ignorance. Not being an empire, Germany will never be able to assimilate immigrants. Assimilation happens in empires. Just look at the examples of the United States and China. Germany, at best, will be able to integrate them. That same year, 58% of the German population declared themselves in favour of reducing the number of foreign citizens.
Kohl's plan resulted in a program that consisted of paying 10,500 German marks and paying social security contributions to Turkish citizens to leave the country. Only 100 thousand of them were accepted and returned to Türkiye.
That program was only the first of a long series of events that symbolized racism towards the Turks who lived in Germany.
Racism against Turks and German Multiculturalism
The worst point occurred in the early 1990s, with a series of racist attacks against families of Turkish immigrants. First, the attack in Mölln in 1992, then the one in Solingen in 1993.
On the night of November 22, 1992, in Mölln, Schleswig-Holstein, two right-wing extremists, Michael Peters and Lars Christiansen, set fire to the homes of the Turkish families Arslan and Yılmaz. The attack resulted in the death of Bahide Arslan, 51, his 10-year-old niece Yeliz Arslan, and Ayşe Yılmaz, 14. Nine other people were injured, including a nine-month-old baby. The perpetrators were arrested and convicted; Peters received a life sentence, while Christiansen, tried as a minor, was sentenced to nine years.
On May 29, 1993, in Solingen, North Rhine-Westphalia, four young Germans affiliated with neo-Nazi groups set fire to the home of the German-Turkish Genç family. The fire killed five family members: two women and three girls, the youngest four years old. Fourteen others were injured. The attackers were convicted of arson and murder, receiving prison sentences of between 10 and 15 years.
The attacks sparked widespread protests and drew international attention to the problem of right-wing extremism in Germany and racism towards the Turkish community. Then-Chancellor Helmut Kohl did not attend the funerals of the victims.
“The Turks are coming, save yourself who can”, title of the magazine Der Spiegel.
It cannot be more racist than this.
Another example of racism towards both the Turkish and Kurdish communities is the fact that Germany has always considered the former as a monolith. Never caring that within the Turkish community, there was also a Kurdish one. In official statistics, they always refer to the Turks and not the Kurds.
Today, Turks represent the largest ethnic minority in the country. Yet, despite being an integral part of German reality and many successful integration cases, the captain of the national team Gündoğan, in an interview with Der Spiegel last June, still needed to underline a concept like this: “Wir sehen vielleicht anders aus, aber wir sind auch deutsch”, or “we may seem different, but we are German too.”
This is not a phrase that one would expect to hear in 2024 in a country that, theoretically, has made multiculturalism an essential component of its identity. One wonders then whether the reality of the facts is different and whether this multiculturalism is not just a narrative disconnected from reality. How well is German integration working?
It is important to first underline how multiculturalism and integration contain a subtle level of racism. Not visible at first glance. The concept of multiculturalism provides for the integration of immigrants after they arrive in the new country. This translated means: learning the language and the local cultural rules, finding a job and actively participating in social life. Achieving rights such as voting, possible only after receiving citizenship. Clear evidence of a (theoretical) successful integration.
The integration process requires that a person adopt the traits of the society in which he or she is living but also maintain those of his or her origins. The cancellation of the language or other cultural characteristics is not required. But just being able to integrate does not imply being accepted as a local. As a ‘German’ in this case, since we are talking about Germany.
The immigrant is given the freedom to maintain the characteristics that distinguish her/him, such as language and faith, but indirectly, she/he is made to notice that as long as she/he maintains them, cannot be considered a local. To be considered one of them, she/he will have to let her/himself be assimilated. And assimilation involves the elimination of one's origins.
To put it cynically: "we accept your diversity and give you the same rights as us, but remember that you are still different. You will be one of us, only when you erase your origins."
In the phrase used by Özil to leave the national team, there is the synthesis of this entire sophisticated process that I tried to summarize in a few lines.
"If you win and wear our flag you are one of us, but if you lose and maintain contact with your homeland, then you are an immigrant."
And yet, the footballer represented a wonderful symbol of integration.
Born in the city of Gelsenkirchen. His grandparents, miners from Zonguldak in Türkiye, had moved to the Ruhr area as Gastarbeiter in the 1960s. Both of his parents were born in Germany.
For decades, the German national football team had been a symbol of a certain vision of German society: white, ethnically German, powerful but lacking in style or subtlety. That changed with Özil’s generation. The team began to reflect a more modern and diverse country. With the first players from immigrant backgrounds joining the national team. The pinnacle of that journey was winning the 2014 World Cup. That event was a kind of stamp of success for German multiculturalism.
Until the Özil case.
“It is cause for alarm when a great German footballer like Mesut Özil no longer feels wanted in his country because of racism and does not feel represented by the DFB”
Katarina Barley, former Federal Minister of Justice
At that time, Chancellor Angela Merkel said she respected the player’s choice and emphasized how Özil had played an important role in the integration of immigrants in Germany.
Recent events show us that Germany still has a lot of work to do. The most recent case was the survey conducted by German public television, which before last year’s European Championship asked a thousand fans whether they would prefer to see more white players in the national team. 21% said yes. There was much criticism against the broadcaster, which was accused of racism by both Nagelsmann and Kimmich.
“And yet, people continue to talk about ‘Turkish German’ instead of ‘German Turks’, even for those who have been German for decades.”
Jan Plamper - Das neue wir
Immigration is an integral part of modern German history, even if many Germans still struggle to accept it. Another example was the swear word of the year chosen for 2024. Namely ‘Biodeutsch’.
A term used to highlight the difference between a ‘real’ (biological) German and a ‘fake’ German. One with a migration background. One like Özil, for example. The history of this term is interesting, as it first appeared in a Taz cartoon in 1996. The cartoonist was none other than a Turk who emigrated to Germany, Mohsin Omurca.
Initially, the term was used humorously, especially by Germans with a migration background, to make fun of themselves. In recent times, the term has been increasingly used, especially by the far-right AfD party, to highlight the difference between ‘real’ Germans and those with a migrant background.
Back to Özil, this was the first chapter of his career as a politician. Which we could rename as that of indirect politics. From that moment on, Özil began to take very direct positions.
Like the one in favour of the Uyghurs.
Özil and the Uyghurs
In December 2019, Özil once again used his social media channels to make important statements. That time, he condemned the detention camps and China's attitude towards the Uyghurs. In his denunciation post, Özil wondered why Muslims around the world, but also the West, were doing nothing to protect this population from the risk of disappearing.
"Muslims are silent. Don't they know that consent to persecution is itself persecution?"
The effects of that position were significant. The Premier League's two partners in China, CCTV and PP Sports, initially refused to broadcast Arsenal's first match after the statements. When they finally did broadcast it, commentators refused to mention Özil's name. His avatar was removed from video games. His name disappeared from Chinese search engines. His Weibo account was also disabled.
The fact that such a strong position came from a person of Turkish origin is no coincidence. The Uyghurs are an ethnic minority living in China, specifically in the region of Xinjiang, or East Turkestan. They are a people of Turkish origin who speak a Turkic language, are of Sunni Islam faith and share much with the Turks.
Since the 1950s, Türkiye has been one of the destinations chosen by Uyghurs fleeing persecution in China. There are approximately 50,000 Uighurs currently living in Türkiye, forming the largest Uighur diaspora outside of China. Uyghurs who manage to reach Türkiye are given Turkish citizenship and the opportunity to build a future for themselves.
The United Nations and several human rights groups estimate that between 1 and 2 million people have been detained in inhumane conditions as part of what Beijing calls an anti-terrorism campaign. China has repeatedly denied any mistreatment of the Uyghurs, and its Foreign Ministry has said that Özil was misled by "fake news."
The Chinese government has for years been engaged in a process of forced assimilation of the Uyghurs. It has locked them up in what it calls re-education centres, which are nothing more than concentration camps. In which they are denied personal freedom, and forced to learn Mandarin and other cultural aspects of Chinese culture.
Furthermore, the Han Chinese - the majority ethnic group in China - have been proposed by the Beijing government to move to the region, to increase the Han presence and make them become more Uyghurs.
The Chinese goal is to make the Uyghurs as Chinese as possible or to make them disappear. The options used are forced assimilation in re-education centres, or forced marriages between Han Chinese and Uyghurs.
These people and the Xinjiang region are of fundamental importance for China, but they also play an important role for Türkiye. For Beijing, that is the region to keep under control and where to prevent a fifth column from giving rise to independence movements. Furthermore, there is the economic factor, given that it is the border that links China to Western Asia and from which the Belt and Road Initiative starts.
For Ankara, the region would represent the easternmost part of Turkish influence in Asia. In fact, in recent years, Erdoğan has given life to a pan-Turkish mission. The goal is to increase Türkiye’s influence in all those countries where Turkish is spoken and the population shares cultural traits with the Turks. The area starts from Azerbaijan, moves between the so-called Stans and reaches Xinjiang or Eastern Turkestan.
In 2009, Erdoğan took a strong position towards China. Defining what was carried out against the Uyghurs as ‘genocide’. Over the years, however, Türkiye has given less and less importance to the situation of the Uyghurs. Accepting in an almost passive manner what the population is going through for fear of ruining relations with China. Both commercial and geopolitical. More and more Uyghurs have been stripped of their Turkish citizenship and official statements from the Turkish government have gradually decreased.
After Özil's statements in 2019, and considering the excellent relationship that the former footballer has with Erdoğan - who was also his best man at his wedding - one could have expected a stance from the President or a rapprochement with the former footballer. What happened, instead, was the opposite. It was Özil who approached the President, implementing the last step of his career as a politician.
Or rather, becoming one in the true sense of the word.
Politician for real
Özil's statements about the fact that the photo with Erdoğan had no political motivation have aged badly. It may be that 7 years ago, there was no political intention in that gesture, but in the meantime, Özil has officially entered politics. And he did it right alongside Erdoğan, becoming a member of the central council of the AKP at the congress in Ankara.
The process has thus come to an end.
In 2014, after the World Cup victory, the player represented the symbol of German multiculturalism. A little more than ten years later, he is not even invited to Germany for an event of relative importance such as the farewell match of a former teammate. Because of his closeness to a politician who is very far from the ideals of German society.
Özil's personal story can be added to the list of increasingly young Turks, children of immigrants, born and raised in Germany, who in recent years have decided to go and live in Türkiye. Cutting the link with what theoretically should be their homeland, but of which they have never felt part.
Giving rise to an unthinkable short circuit. Their parents, who in theory should be the ones who want to return to Türkiye, but are happy to stay in Germany. While they, who theoretically should be happy in the country where they were born and raised, are instead more comfortable in a country where they have at most spent their summers.
These examples, together with Özil's story, are important evidence of how German integration and multiculturalism are not working. What turn Özil's career politics will take, only time will tell.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/26/sports/soccer/mesut-ozil-arsenal-china.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/21/sports/soccer/mesut-ozil-rory-smith-newsletter.html
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/dec/21/mesut-ozil-playmaker-who-spoke-out-arsenal
https://www.dw.com/en/in-his-own-words-why-mesut-%C3%B6zil-quit-germany/a-44780394
https://www.dw.com/en/mesut-%C3%B6zil-quits-germany-over-erdogan-controversy/a-44777380
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/23/world/europe/mesut-ozil-germany-soccer.html
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einwanderung_aus_der_T%C3%BCrkei_in_die_Bundesrepublik_Deutschland
https://minorityrights.org/communities/turks-and-kurds/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Turkish_sentiment
https://tr.boell.org/en/2024/04/05/uyghur-issue-turkey-china-relations
https://apnews.com/article/turkey-china-uyghurs-cultural-rights-11834ba94024ea82af1f45c5df1fbd82
https://www.diplomaticourier.com/posts/diplomatic-ramifications-erdogans-uyghur-dilemma
https://www.voanews.com/a/turkey-turns-down-citizenship-for-some-uyghurs/6488401.html
Fascinating, well-written read.
Congrats - and thank you, Gezim.
Really interesting write-up on Mesut Özil and the intersection of sports, politics, and societal issues.