Distinguished Participants, Dear friends,
Ladies and Gentlemen
Good morning all.

It is great to be here in Saarland and I thank the organizers for giving me the privilege of making this opening speech.

It is an honor for me to address such a distinguished group of academicians and experts of law.

I thank the University of Saarland for hosting us and the University President Prof. Dr Volker Linneweber for his kind words.

I also thank Prof Dr. Michael Martinek, Head of the Institute of European Law as well as Mr. and Mrs. Dönmez for initiating the idea of discussing the issues related to family law between Turkey and Germany, as well as other sponsors providing support to this event. I also greet Mr. Peter Gillo, a true friend for the Turkish Community in Saarland.


(Ülkemizden gelen değerli katılımcılara da selam ve saygılarımı sunuyor, hoşgeldiniz; şeref verdiniz demek istiyorum. Aynı şekilde Almanya’da yetişen hukukçularımızı da gönülden selamlıyorum. )

I believe that this conference is a true service to the human element which constitutes the most important component of the relations between Turkey and Germany.

In fact, since the signing of the workforce agreement between Turkey and Germany more than 5 decades ago bilateral relations evolved into family relations, in and between families.

Thus, it is pleasing to know that during the course of today and tomorrow a range of issues will be addressed by prominent academicians from the both countries, including also competent experts of law of Turkish origin born or raised in Germany.

These discussions, I am sure, will be relevant to a large number of people, here in Germany, Turkey and elsewhere.

In my capacity as the Turkish Consul General in Mainz, me and members of my team come across many issues that directly or indirectly relate to your work at individual and communal level.

The topic of today is family law. There are many intersections in which Turkish and German laws meet and sometimes contradict.

There are also many occasions where lawyers and judges have to apply the laws of the other country.

There are of course a range of topics to be discussed in this regard and I am of the opinion that this Conference will prove fruitful to better understand the law system of both countries.

However there are also other issues at the at the level of Turkish Community living in Germany, which in one way or another are relevant to what you are going to discuss today and tomorrow.

Dual citizenship is one of them. It is an issue high on the agenda of the Turkish Community in Germany.

While nationals of 51 other countries that reside in Germany can benefit from this right, members of the Turkish community are imposed “the option model” which is the option of choosing either the German or Turkish citizenship before the age of 23 and this does not seem fair to the Community members nor to many others.

And I believe that this should be one of the considerations while evaluating the regulations in the family law sphere.

On another note, I was also happy to see that the theme of “Cultural identity” is included in the agenda of the conference.

In this context, I would like to briefly mention the situation of the Turkish children whose custody are taken away from their parents by Jugendamts (Youth Offices)sometimes arbitrarily.

This constitutes a highly sensitive subject for all of us. While there are international instruments such as the European Convention of Human Rights ensuring the preservation of the cultural identity of the children whose custody are in question, contrary practices in reality unfortunately remain against the members of the Turkish Community.

Laws, domestic, regional or international, exist to serve the human community and as human societies change, the laws need to evolve.

The process of globalisation is likely to continue and the enormous interaction between Turks and Germans from the same or different jurisdictions is likely to grow .

To sum up, I would like to say you have too much to do today and tomorrow.

I wish all participants a fruitful and enlightening experience at the Conference which is an excellent demonstration of your will to serve to the human element and I believe that the exchanges resulting from this Conference will be a source of inspiration for many .