Germany, Turkey in deportation dispute

The spokesman for Interior Minister Otto Schily confirmed a report in Friday’s Tagesspiegel newspaper, which printed extracts from a letter he sent to his Turkish counterpart Abdulkadir Aksu. The newspaper said that Schily was reacting to a decision by Turkish authorities to repeal the passports of some citizens living abroad for their refusal to complete military service.
“Domestic issues in Turkey are being resolved at Germany’s expense,” Schily wrote.
More than two million Turks live in Germany — most of them descendants of “guest workers” who arrived in the country in the 1960s — but only a minority of them are eligible for German citizenship.
Germany is concerned that it could be left with a number of stateless Turkish nationals who could not be deported even if they committed serious crimes here.