A German-Kurdish footballer who was shot at while driving in Germany on Sunday says he was attacked for criticising the Turkish government and supporting Kurdish separatism.
Deniz Naki, 28, was driving his SUV on a motorway near the town of Düren when unknown assailants opened fire from a black van.
Two bullets hit the car, one smashed into a side window and another became lodged in the chassis above the wheel - he was unhurt.
Mr Naki was driving on a slow lane at 11pm when the vehicle approached his car from the adjacent lane and shots were fired, he recalled. “I immediately ducked and drove onto the hard shoulder.”
The van drove off and Mr Naki called the police.
“I could have died, it was close — I was afraid for my life,” Mr Naki, who frequently receives death threats on social media because of his pro-Kurdish stance, told Die Welt newspaper. “I always knew that something like that could happen. But I never expected it to happen in Germany.”
Mr Naki, who resides in Turkey, said he was targeted because of his criticism of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
“I assume it was an MIT (Turkish National Intelligence Organisation) agent or someone else who doesn’t like my political stance,” he said.
“We’re investigating in all directions,” said Katja Schlenkermann-Pitts, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office in Aachen. “A politically motivated crime cannot be ruled out.”
Some consider Mr Naki an enemy of the Turkish state because of his support for the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) - a Kurdish separatist organisation, recognised as a terrorist group by the United States.
In 2016 Mr Naki was charged with inciting hatred and hostility, the case was dropped in November that year. In April 2017 he was given an 18-month suspended jail sentence for "terrorist propaganda" in support of the Kurdish group.
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Read more:
Erdogan threatens action against US-allied Syrian Kurd militia
Turkish policeman killed, 9 wounded in raid on PKK
Turkey summons German envoy over 'pro-PKK' rally in Cologne
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Mr Naki captains the third-division club Amed SK in Diyarbakir, the unofficial capital of Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast. Mr Naki and his teammates are celebrated by Kurds as stars of the Kurdish separatist cause, but they are also reviled by many Turks.
When the team travels for work, crowds chant abuse and hurl objects at them during their matches. Last summer, Mr Naki was physically attacked by a spectator.
Following last year's suspended jail sentence and an increase in threatening messages, Mr Naki says he was advised by friends to move back to Germany, where his skills once earned him a place in the national under-21 team and where he played for Hamburg club St. Pauli in the Bundesliga.
But the team captain says he refuses to leave Turkey, telling German newspaper Welt am Sonntag last July that leaving would be an admission of guilt. “But I didn’t do anything wrong. And I told the court that.”
He is now under police protection in an undisclosed location. His lawyer, Soran Haldi Mizrak, said: “there’s no safety for Deniz in Germany. It’s evidently safer for him in Diyarbakir.”
Mr. Naki’s father, Hasan Naki, spent time in prison for opposing the Turkish military and fled to Germany upon his release in the 1970s. He continued to support the Kurdish separatist cause from there. “I was six when I accompanied my father to my first Kurdish demonstration,” Mr Naki said.
He has delayed his return to Turkey for a few days to assist the police in their investigation.
Germany and Turkey are working to mend relations following a host of disputes, including a row over president Erdogan’s crackdown in the wake of the 2016 coup attempt. Turkey has repeatedly accused Germany of sheltering PKK supporters.
Hundreds of militants, members of the security forces and civilians have been killed in southeast Turkey since the collapse of a ceasefire between the Turkish army and the PKK in 2015. The conflict has killed some 40,000 people since 1984.
Sahra Wagenknecht, parliamentary leader of the Left party, said that Berlin should investigate whether "Turkish death squads are active in Germany" and demanded decisive action against "criminal activities by Erdogan supporters in Germany.”
The Brutalist
Director: Brady Corbet
Stars: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn
Rating: 3.5/5
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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The%20specs
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UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Ahmed Raza
UAE cricket captain
Age: 31
Born: Sharjah
Role: Left-arm spinner
One-day internationals: 31 matches, 35 wickets, average 31.4, economy rate 3.95
T20 internationals: 41 matches, 29 wickets, average 30.3, economy rate 6.28
The 10 Questions
- Is there a God?
- How did it all begin?
- What is inside a black hole?
- Can we predict the future?
- Is time travel possible?
- Will we survive on Earth?
- Is there other intelligent life in the universe?
- Should we colonise space?
- Will artificial intelligence outsmart us?
- How do we shape the future?
Where to buy
Limited-edition art prints of The Sofa Series: Sultani can be acquired from Reem El Mutwalli at www.reemelmutwalli.com
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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The specs
Engine: 2-litre or 3-litre 4Motion all-wheel-drive Power: 250Nm (2-litre); 340 (3-litre) Torque: 450Nm Transmission: 8-speed automatic Starting price: From Dh212,000 On sale: Now
Washmen Profile
Date Started: May 2015
Founders: Rami Shaar and Jad Halaoui
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Laundry
Employees: 170
Funding: about $8m
Funders: Addventure, B&Y Partners, Clara Ventures, Cedar Mundi Partners, Henkel Ventures
More on Quran memorisation:
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Brief scores:
Liverpool 3
Mane 24', Shaqiri 73', 80'
Manchester United 1
Lingard 33'
Man of the Match: Fabinho (Liverpool)
Ticket prices
- Golden circle - Dh995
- Floor Standing - Dh495
- Lower Bowl Platinum - Dh95
- Lower Bowl premium - Dh795
- Lower Bowl Plus - Dh695
- Lower Bowl Standard- Dh595
- Upper Bowl Premium - Dh395
- Upper Bowl standard - Dh295
The bio:
Favourite holiday destination: I really enjoyed Sri Lanka and Vietnam but my dream destination is the Maldives.
Favourite food: My mum’s Chinese cooking.
Favourite film: Robocop, followed by The Terminator.
Hobbies: Off-roading, scuba diving, playing squash and going to the gym.
THE DETAILS
Deadpool 2
Dir: David Leitch
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Justin Dennison, Zazie Beetz
Four stars
