Working Out with a Notorious German Biker Gang

 

H μελέτη του γκρούπ έχει ιδιaίτερη σημασία διότι οι γερμανικές αρχές ασφαλείας έδωσαν προσφατα στην δημοσιότητα μαγνητοφωνημένες συνομιλίες μεταξύ των αρχηγών της οργάνωσης στην Γερμανία και του στενού συνεργάτη και φίλου του Ερντογάν Μετίν Κουλούνκ. 

Ανάμεσα στις καταγραφές περιλαμβάνεται η εντολή επίθεσης στον Γερμανό κωμικό Μποχερμαν, ο οποίος ανάγνωσε ενα ποίημα ειρωνικό για τον Ερντογάν. 

 The European press may worry that the Germania Ottomans are an aggressively expanding criminal biker gang, but the group says it's more like a boxing club.

We've been wandering around a nondescript industrial lot in northern Berlin for about ten minutes when we finally spot them by a gate: Two men, built like bouncers—in leather cut-off jackets, their hair cropped very short. We approach them a tad uncomfortably, and they shake our hands without smiling. "Just go around the back to the little door. They'll give you a warm welcome there," one of them says, grinning. I start to wonder whether it was a mistake to arrange to meet the Osmanen Germania—the Germania Ottomans, in English.

 They're Germany's latest biker gang.  

The police in North Rhine-Westphalia are considerably more reserved: "We're still in a state of acquiring intelligence," says Klaus Zimmermann, spokesperson for the organized crime division of North Rhine-Westphalia's state police. The police might not be talking about "biker wars," but they are taking the new group seriously: "We can't eliminate the possibility of conflicts. We've seen that happen repeatedly when hostile gangs set up shop in another gang's territory with the intention of doing business." 

But are the Germania Ottomans interested in that kind of business? According to Zimmermann, there's no concrete evidence supporting that yet. The group is still young and hasn't really made its mark yet. But at least on Facebook, members of the Germania Ottomans vehemently deny being a criminal biker gang.

 "We started the Germania Ottomans in order to give something back, not to take anything away from anyone," one of the group's founders, Selcuk S., writes on Facebook.

 Other members also emphasize that the Germania Ottomans are not a biker gang. In fact, the members like to point out that they're not an MC (motorcycle club) but a BC—a boxing club.

sources,

VICE, ZDF