Zaytunge Frankfurte

Last week, I went to Mainz University in Germany as part of another research project. My journey, which began at Sabiha Gökçen Airport, ended at Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof—just a 4-5 stop, ten-minute train ride away from the airport.

I paid 1.5 euros for the train ticket.

So, I didn't spend hours traveling to reach the city center.

I also reached the university in Mainz very easily.

For a week, I both taught classes and discussed new projects.

I spent quite a bit of time with Prof. Dr. Alfons Buchmann and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Arda Öcal, who is a former student of mine, both of whom are professors in the Department of Civil Engineering at Mainz University.

While discussing engineering and history, we also talked about European Union-funded projects.

They were very hospitable and generous, I must say. It was as if I didn't even have to reach for my wallet.

Ultimately, we decided to conduct a joint project on “Digitalization in Civil Engineering Projects.”

In our meetings, we also discussed significant events starting from the late 1800s, all the way through World War I, the era of the German-Ottoman alliance under Kaiser Wilhelm II, Abdulaziz, and Abdulhamid, and the 1960 Turkish labor migration period.

I didn't hold back from sharing some insights on the Merkel-Putin relationship, either.

The single-centered German media has done its job and misled its people.

It has created a school of thought that even looks with sympathy upon those who steal all exam questions, suck the blood of the nation, betray their family and homeland, and appear to be Muslim while being followers of the Pennsylvania-based group.

Anyway, let's get back to the topic.

The Berlin-Istanbul-Baghdad-Damascus-Hejaz “Orient Express” Railway, the scientists who fled Nazi oppression in 1933 and escaped to Turkey, and World War II were among the many topics that came up.

In particular, we discussed how we, who migrated to Germany as laborers in the 1960s, are now migrating as doctors, engineers, business people, and scientists.

Graduates of the schools established by the Republic are now supporting Germany's development not with manual labor, but with intellectual power.

They are also managing to save a bit of money, of course.

“Should we be happy or sad?” You decide.

While you decide, let me write down some of my observations.

Frankfurt, one of the main centers of German finance, art, and science, has turned into our Laleli-Aksaray line.

In Frankfurt, while it is almost impossible to see a German person, you also have to walk quite a distance to find a German pastry or bread.

When you reach a place, it is not very possible to see a Helga with long blonde hair, colored eyes, full breasts, a curvy figure, and beautiful hips.

In other words, you don't come across that miracle that gives life and blood, sparking curiosity when you look below the fork.

Instead, you see more unkempt Serbs, Bulgarians, or Poles.

There are as many kebab shops, lahmacun shops, and hookah lounges as you could want.

And they are right next to the Hauptbahnhof.

The place is filthy.

Hygiene is zero.

The German calmness is gone.

The sound of horns you hear after European Cup matches and the adolescent drivers help you feel like you are back in your own country.

As Germans leave their city around 4 or 5 o'clock, their places have been taken by people of different appearances who crossed the ocean at the risk of death.

The city has almost been abandoned to drug dealers.

People dressed like ISIS members are everywhere.

Some have even been put in uniforms and made civil servants.

The issue of “Decreasing Educated Turkish Fertility” versus “Increasing Uneducated-Immigrant Fertility Rate,” which we have recently started to see as a problem and a danger, became a problem in Germany long ago. Especially in the educated segment, the fertility rate is on the verge of hitting zero there as well.

There is a need for engineers.

The reason for this is not just declining fertility. It is also the excessively growing German companies and production models.

They are building the infrastructure for more than a hundred countries around the world.

It is not really possible for their own population to suffice.

For German industry to continue growing at this speed, 100 Turkish engineers are needed for every one German engineer.

But the problem is that the poor immigrants are accelerating their reproduction. With the goal of “the more children, the more comfortable the retirement,” and to increase their chances of survival, the reserves in their wombs and the double-cabin strollers in their hands are forcing the automatic doors of the trains.

On the other hand, except for a few promising examples, immigrant children generally have not reached the desired level of education.

The “priority of saving money” has caused young people to fall behind both socially and educationally.

The “sensitivity to cultural detachment” has also caused problems in integration into the German system.

While young people raised with the resources of a poor Turkey during the Cold War were aspiring to guide Germany's science, the second and third generations there unfortunately seem far from this capability.

It seems that the countdown has begun for a new chapter in the cooperation that the Germans first established with the Turks 150 years ago.