Former German Chancellor Kohl sought to repatriate hundreds of thousands of Turks 30 years ago:
Former Chancellor Helmut Kohl discussed a secret plan with Margaret Thatcher in 1982 to reduce the number of Turks living in West Germany by 50 percent, according to recently released British documents cited by Spiegel Online in Germany.
The German news magazine's online edition reported that the newly elected West German chancellor told Prime Minister Thatcher about the proposal at a meeting in Bonn on October 28, 1982, according to a protocol of the meeting notes marked "PREM 19/1036" that Spiegel Online said was kept secret for 30 years.
"Chancellor Kohl said...that it would be necessary over the next four years to reduce the number of Turks by 50 percent - but he could not say that publicly," the notes from the meeting read, according to the Spiegel Online report.
Spiegel Online said Kohl had told Thatcher that West Germany wanted repatriate hundreds of thousands of Turks.
"Germany doesn't have any problem with Portuguese, Italians and even southeast Asians because these communities are integrating well," according to the British notes of the meeting with Kohl.
"But the Turks were from a very different kind of culture...(West) Germany had integrated 11 million Germans from East European countries. But they were Europeans and didn't represent any problem."
"It would be impossible for Germany to assimilate the current number of Turks," the meeting notes added.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/former ... sCatID=351
