Ceremony held to mark neo-Nazi terror attack in Germany on Turkish neighborhood

By Mesut Zeyrek

COLOGNE (AA) - A ceremony was held Friday in Germany to mark the 19th anniversary of a bomb attack by Neo-Nazis that targeted a Turkish neighborhood in Cologne.

During the ceremony, attendees placed wreaths at the scene and released doves.

Turkish Consul General in Cologne, Turhan Kaya, and Mayor of Cologne Henriette Reker, attended.

Keup Street, known as “Little Istanbul," was targeted June 9, 2004, with a bomb attack by the neo-Nazi terror group, the National Socialist Underground (NSU).

Twenty-two people were injured, including six who were seriously wounded in the terror attack.

The NSU killed eight Turkish immigrants, a Greek citizen and a German policewoman between 2000 and 2007, but the murders have remained unresolved.

German public first learned of the NSU’s existence and its role in the murders on Nov. 4, 2011, when two members of the group, Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Bohnhardt, committed suicide after an unsuccessful bank robbery. Police found evidence in their apartment showing they were behind the murders.

Mundlos, Bohnhardt and another member, Beate Zschaepe, have lived clandestine lives for nearly 13 years, apparently without arousing the suspicions of German police or intelligence services.

Zschaepe was sentenced to life in prison in 2018 after a five-year trial. During the trial, she declined to give insight about the NSU, and tried to lay blame on her friends -- Mundlos and Bohnhardt.