While that statement by Angela Merkel, as head of the German government, might be either accepted, rejected or simply questioned by many different Germans in 2010, this question was posed in DIE ZEIT survey specifically to the second largest Muslim audience on continental Europe.
I ask myself---Why would Turkish-Germans or German-Turks not be expected to be more aware of the abuses and crimes of Israel (and the weaknesses of German's own government in terms of promoting human rights) than the average German?
Naturally, as a mostly Muslim population, the Turkish peoples surveyed are going to go against the status quo in Germany--with all of the Holocaust burden which has been passed on to young Germans in school for nearly 4 decades now.
On the other hand, I was happy that overall in the survey that the German-Turks (non German citizens) and Turkish-Germans (German citizens or destined to be) in 80 to 90 percent of the poll results came out looking fairly integrated--not only integrated into the German social and political status quo but well-integrated with all of Europe in their empathy for their fellow man.
That is, through DIE ZEIT survey, the Turkish peoples-surveyed obviously hold many supposedly universal human qualities that align well with the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. It is this universalizing of human rights ideals that is the great legacy of man's overall response to the horrors of the Holocaust. This is certainly good news as this UN Holocaust Day is recognized around the globe today.
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