Newcomer to German politics Dava focuses on conservatives with migrant roots

A newly founded political association in Germany, Dava, has announced it wants to nominate people from different backgrounds as candidates for the European elections. The 15 candidates include "not only people with Turkish roots," Dava chairman Teyfik Ozcan told the German Press Agency. 

In Turkish, "dava" means "thing", "event", "mission" or "procedure", and in a legal context also "lawsuit". However, the word also evokes associations with the Arabic term "dawa", which means "invitation" and, in a religious context, "Islamic proselytising". The Turkish journalist Can Dundar, who has been living in exile in Germany since 2016, hears echoes of traditional concepts of the Turkish right, as he explained in a radio programme for WDR.

The candidates announced by the association, which according to its chairman is also aiming to form a party in the future, include Ali Ihsan Unlu and Mustafa Yoldas, two men known for their involvement in Islamic organisations. Unlu headed the Lower Saxony regional organisation of the Turkish-Islamic Union of the Institute for Religion (Ditib) for several years.

Ditib is the largest Islamic umbrella organisation in Germany. It reports to the religious authority Diyanet in Ankara, which sends and pays imams to around 900 mosque communities. The federal organisation has been under fire for years because of its close ties to Erdogan. 

In December, the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the Turkish religious authority and Ditib agreed to gradually end the posting of civil servants from Turkey to Germany as religious representatives.

Yoldas is known to the security authorities for his involvement with the Milli Gorus movement – classed as Islamist by Germany's Office for the Protection of the Constitution – and other ideologically related groups. In addition, the doctor from Hamburg once headed the International Humanitarian Aid Organisation (IHH), which was banned in 2010. 

According to political scientist Karen Schoenwaelder, Dava has no more chance of success than previous party formations in Germany that primarily courted people of foreign origin. These include the Alliance of German Democrats (ADD), which received 0.1 percent of the vote in the 2017 state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia.

The researcher from the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Göttingen explained to the German Press Agency that parties whose sole appeal is to migrants or a specific national group of origin are rarely successful internationally either. Admittedly, German political parties still fail to appeal sufficiently to citizens with a migration background. 

Nevertheless, Germans with roots in Turkey in particular have been "actively involved in democratic processes in Germany" since the 1980s, the political scientist emphasised. Compared to other ethnic groups, they are much more strongly represented among migrants running for political office, members of parliament and office holders.

The fact that their representatives are also less well known among Germans with a migration background than the leading politicians of the major parties further diminishes the chances of a party that is heavily courting people of Turkish origin, according to Schoenwaelder. "After all, these people live in Germany and take part in the social debate here." 

Their political concerns are not fundamentally different from those of other people. The academic does not believe that the citizenship law introduced by the coalition government, which makes dual citizenship possible in principle, will change this. Several politicians from the CDU and CSU have been heard expressing such fears in recent days.

Aslihan Yesilkaya-Yurtbay, Federal Chairwoman of the Turkish Community in Germany (TGD), has called for more composure. She said: "I expect more from the CDU/CSU than a cheap attempt to reverse the recently agreed dual citizenship." 

Even if the Dava party is ideologically close to Erdogan, this does not mean "that it should be labelled as a purely Erdogan party". It is also wrong to believe "that people of Turkish origin fundamentally support Erdogan or represent a security risk".

Dava chairman Ozcan was a member of the SPD for around 30 years. He describes his new movement as "conservative in terms of values, but also with progressive ideas". Pre-school education is an important issue for him, he says. 

The Dava election manifesto states: "Dava is committed to protecting the family through a policy that emphasises traditional values and structures". 

The movement also wants to campaign for Muslim associations to be recognised as public entities. (dpa)