'Turkey has close eye on Germany after racist attack'

By Sibel Morrow and Gozde Bayar

ANKARA (AA) – Turkey is keeping a close eye on developments in the wake of Wednesday’s far-right terror attack in Germany, which killed nine people, including five Turkish nationals, said the country’s president.

“Turkey, and especially the Turkish Embassy in Berlin, is carefully monitoring the process” following the deadly attack, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday, at a ceremony inaugurating the new Presidential Library in the capital Ankara.

Erdogan added that Turkey expects German authorities to do whatever is necessary to throw light on all aspects of the terror attack.

In the wake of previous racist attacks, Turkey has criticized German authorities for failing to expose the full extent of right-wing groups behind the assaults and for not tackling growing Islamophobia.

Erdogan also extended condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in the Hanau shooting.

Turkey’s Ambassador to Berlin Ali Kemal Aydin told reporters that five Turkish nationals were among those killed in the mass shooting.

The perpetrator, who targeted migrants at two cafes in Hanau, near Frankfurt, was identified by security forces as Tobias R., 43, German daily Bild reported.

He and one other person were found dead in an apartment following a German special operations raid.

Initial police findings showed that the perpetrator was acting with “xenophobic motives,” Hesse's Interior Minister Peter Beuth told reporters on Thursday.

"The Federal Public Prosecutor has taken over the investigation. It is treating this as a suspected incident of a terrorist attack," he said.

Hanau is located around 20 kilometers (12 miles) east of Frankfurt and has a population of nearly 100,000.