Leyla Bilge, a Kurdish refugee at the service of the German extreme right

Leyla Bilge comes from a Kurdish family originally from Turkey.Germany arrived six years as a refugee.In 2017 it became Christianity.In alternative for Germany (AFD) defends Germanic patriotism and attacks Angela Merkel for her refugee policy.

On his table there is a book in Arabic about the drama of being a sex slave of the Islamic State (EI).Deputy Ulrich Oehme, of the alternative ultra -right -wing training for Germany (AFD), left it in the Office of Leyla Bilge.Bilge works at the Bundestag for Oehme, who recently was news for having traveled on his own initiative to Iraq to know, especially the situation there of religious minorities.In that country, Christians and Yazidi have been especially martyred by the IE.

This is a reality that knows well Leyla Bilge.Not long ago, this woman born 36 years ago in Idil, a city located in the Turkish Kurdistan and very close to the border of Turkey with Syria and Iraq, left everything to go to help from those displaced because of the rise of the IE.

“I occupied a management position in a company.It was a good job.But I started paying attention to the news that came from Iraq.One day, before the images of a four or five -year -old Kurdish boy in the desert, who asked where his parents were, the child replied: 'They are dead, ”Bilge recalls in statements to El Español.“Shortly after seeing that, I was telling my bosses that I was going.They thought I had turned crazy, I guess.I don't know what happened to me, ”he says.

Bilge traveled to Turkey in 2014 to reach a field of children and women Yazidi women."They had lost their families because of the IS, I took care of children, being with women, buying food and other things they needed," he says.There he came into contact with Kurdish associations and private initiatives, being able to start several help campaigns for those victims of the conflict.He traveled to Iraq and Syria to distribute help in refugee fields, even crossing, despite not having visas or permits, the borders of the region.Therefore, among other things, a fame of activist has been forged.

In the 1980s, Bilge's family arrived in Germany to ask for political asylum.At the initiative of his father, facing the Turkish authorities for his Kurdish identity, his family members were welcomed as refugees in Helmut Kohl Germany.Visa in hand, Bilge's family could be installed in the Münster region, in the Land of North-Westphaly (West German).

“My father defended the flag of Turkey being a young soldier.The island of Chipre was tattooed, whereby Greece and Turkey still fight.But in Turkey there came a time when you could not be Kurdo, you could not speak the Kurdish language, or listen to Kurda music and give Kurds names to children, ”says Bilge, AFD member since 2016.“My father was also proud to be Kurdo, and he loved that language and his culture.With the coup d'etat of 1980 [at the hands of General Kenan Evran, NDLR.], my father said: 'I have to protect my family and get her out of here'.That is why he asked for political asylum in Germany and achieved it ”, abounds.

In his family there was always a feeling of thanks to Germany.At the same time, Bilge could see how his father, a man with a relatively influential public office in his city of origin and a person accustomed to having a large house, had to live with his family in a three -bedroom apartment.He had difficulty learning.

"That was a humiliation for my father," according to Bilge.“My father always worked hard, with jobs here and there, and when the work ends in one place we moved elsewhere.We never live in the same place for long periods of time because my father did not want to live from the State.For us, children, that was difficult, because we always had to leave school, make new friends.The notes were bad, ”he recalls.

"Women covered from head to toe"


In any case, having remained in the Münster region, very Catholic and politically land of the conservative Democratic Christian Union (CDU) of Angela Merkel, brought positive effects for his family, according to Bilge."In that region, very conservative, Christian and without many immigrants, unlike the Ruhr basin, we are easily integrated and assimilated," he abounds.In his opinion, that would not have been possible in other cities, such as Duisburg (German West).

“On the days I trained as an insurance broker, I moved to Duisburg and it was horrible.I remember looking home there.On one occasion I had to visit an apartment.I found myself in a street where I couldn't even get out of the car, ”says Bilge.“That was like Morocco, it was worse than Turkey.Actually, it was like going to Saudi Arabia.There were women covered from head to toe, in short, that was not Germany ”, abounds.Bilge ended up calling the apartment owner to tell him that he would not visit.

“There I realized that there are many immigrants who do not integrate because they remain together and have no need to learn German or contact with the Germans.Is that you go to the bank and talk to you in Turkish or Arabic, to the pharmacy and speak to you in Turk.That's wrong, ”he estimates before accusing left."Left politicians say that you have to give more freedoms and accept those traditions more, I say no," he says.

Bilge, despite having German citizens and German passport, are considered an immigrant.“When I say that I am an immigrant, many people tell me: 'No, you are German'.But, for example, if I move to Spain, and I integrate there and live ten years, if someone asks me then what I am, I will say, I am not German, I am Kurda because my roots are kurdas, ”he emphasizes.

"You want to steal culture to Germans"

However, she thinks that "multiculturalism" in society is something "beautiful and interesting"."But if one comes to Germany attracted by their values, what happens when there are no longer?" Bilge asks.In his opinion, in Germany he received between 2015 and 2016 to 1.5 million asylum seekers, "we want to steal the culture of the Germans and that is wrong".

“To the people who have been here for 30 years, who have worked as an immigrant and say that Germany is their country, I tell them that it is not.Because if there is a war, they will not fight, they will go to the country of their origins Turkey, Morocco or the Kurdistan.And who tells me no, I ask him: why do they have two houses, one here and another in Morocco or wherever? ”Asks a vehement bilge.

"The German only has one homeland.And if there is a war, where are the Germans?That is why I defend the Germans.We do not have the right to steal values to Germany, ”he says.Each country has its traditions, its culture and that has to protect itself ”, abounds.

Bilge reproaches Angela Merkel, precisely, not having been consistent in her criticism of multicultural society.“Merkel already said in 2002 that multiculturality had failed, but then came to power and began to say that we had to accept multiculturalism and all that.With Angela Merkel, not a single red line is maintained, ”he says.If Bilge depended, the Foreign Minister would be before the Courts for her policy of open doors for refugees adopted in the summer of 2015.

Merkel and the "madness" of opening borders to refugees

"Angela Merkel opened the borders.It was crazy.Any seven -year -old boy would wonder if doing something like that is not dangerous, ”says Bilge."And Merkel, a prepared woman who has been in politics for years, goes and opens the borders," he says.

This AFD responsible says that the Chancellor's humanitarian gesture had an effect called to all those interested in living in Germany.“I understand the people who have come here from Morocco or Tunisia, I have no reproaches to do them.It is normal to come to Europe to live if in your country you live with five euros a day after a long work day.I make the reproaches to Merkel and his policy, ”he says.

For her, however, most people who arrived in Germany as asylum seekers during the worst days in Europe of the refugee crisis do not deserve that status."We have welcomed people who are not really refugees, or who were, but in Lebanon or in Turkey," he says before clarifying.

“Of course, surely there are a few that are, but the dough is not.Because no normal man from that region, who think a lot about honor and pride, leaves their women and daughters alone, ”he says.She is skeptical of the stories that have transcended many of the people who arrived at German soil as asylum plaintiffs."They say that they have left their family with other relatives, who have sold their home to pay human beings traffickers, but a moment who manages to sell a house in a war zone?" Questiona Bilge.

In full refugee crisis, Bilge had a young asylum plaintiff at home.This single mother prepared her room in the apartment in which she lives with her son.She went to sleep in the living room.“They called me from social services to tell me that there was a teenager Kurdo and to ask me if I could take care of him.I said yes, I wanted to help, ”recalls Bilge.And keep telling: “The boy had said that he was a cousin of the child Aylan Kurdi, who had lost his whole family, that everyone was dead.But then, one day, they told me that in a press report there was a woman who was Aylan's aunt.I concluded that they should be family ".

To check it, Bilge told the boy that the police had informed him of the existence of that woman.“I asked him to tell me the truth or that, otherwise, he would go to jail.And he did.He told me that he had lived before in Turkey, in 2010, as an economic immigrant, ”he says.

"Islam does not belong to Germany"

Bilge also seems to look distrust of the Muslims of Germany.She defends that Muslim women who are militants of the CDU should ask them things like "What do you think of Christianity? Do you accept Christianity? Would you put it in writing? Do you have any problem with the Bible? Do you have problemsWhen going to the offices of the CDU and see crucifixes hanging from the walls? ”.It is not uncommon to listen to the AFD mantra in Bilge according to which "Islam does not belong to Germany".

She adopted Christianity in 2017.Comes from a little religious family."My father's grandmother was also a Christian, Christianity in my family is not far away," says Bilge, while remembering that his hometown, Idil, "is one of the world's oldest Christian cities".

"My parents were not religious, I suspect that in Turkey they made their lives difficult because of that, because there when you are not Muslim, they always make your life difficult," he says.“I never went to a mosque, I never interested in that, but with the churches the opposite happened to me.At school, my brothers and I received a Catholic religion class, although as we came from a Muslim country, we did not have to receive them at school, ”he adds."We always celebrated Christmas, we had a representation of the Virgin Mary in the living room,".

A "radical whisper" in the Bundestag

Thus, in his family, according to Bilge, one might think that his were "more Christians than Muslims".However, in 2014, before the boom of the IS in Syria and Iraq, Bilge decided to act first as Muslim.His recent conversion to Christianity has a lot to do, as he says, that Islam is also the religion of the Islamic State.

“I sent medications to the region, trucks with food and essential products such as winter clothes or tents.I did it thinking that Islam consists of helping people, ”he explains about his humanitarian action in the Middle East.This, in 2011, gave rise to an association that bears his name, Leyla and.V.It is presented as an organization that "gives a voice to the mute of the world".

The voice of Leyla Bilge, despite being relatively young and to some extent a newcomer to politics in Germany, has its audience.Not only are they deputies like Oehme or their party partners in AfD.Bilge has also lavished by events of the xenophobic movement of European patriots against the Islamization of the West (Pegida) or Future Home.The latter has mobilized in Cottbus (this German) with similar slogans to those who have made the Association of Dresde (this German) famous.

As Die Welt newspaper has written, Bilge is, for his ideas, an influential “radical whisper” in the Bundestag.But, in his office, Bilge speaks high and clear.

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