Economy cure for racism in EU: Minister

Racist, Islamophobic and extremist views in Europe would diminish if the European Union is able to overcome its economic problems, Turkey's EU Minister Volkan Bozkır said on Dec. 25.

Bozkır visited the Independent Industrialists and Businessmen's Association (MÜSIAD) and Turkish Industrial and Business Association (TÜSİAD) on Dec. 25, where he stressed the importance of consultation with business groups.

When asked about an increasing wave of racism and Islamphobia in Europe, Bozkır said EU member countries were the most influenced by the global economic crisis.

Some political parties in Europe use Islamphobia as political target and they gain ground in many countries including Germany, Bozkır told reporters.

"Those kinds of movements enhance mild political and social problems," he added.

The Turkish government intervenes in these kinds of incidents, not only with protests, which former Turkish governments were content with, but also with parliamentarian commissions that monitor developments on the scene and make an effort to prevent such incidents, the minister said.

The Turkish government would make all efforts to prevent those incidents within the context of both the EU and bilateral talks with member countries, he added.

A record 15,000 people marched last week in eastern Germany against "asylum cheats" and the country's rising "Islamization," in the latest show of strength of a growing far-right populist movement.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel had earlier cautioned Germans against falling prey to xenophobic "rabble-rousing" or reacting to the nascent movement called the "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the Occident" or PEGIDA.