Fatoş Erekli, a young Kurdish woman performing street music in Germany, was subjected to a racist attack while singing songs in Kurdish.

On June 14, 2025, at Paradeplatz Square in Mannheim, a woman identifying herself as “Turkish” verbally attacked Erekli, saying, “You can't play Kurdish music here.” The attacker went further, approaching the young musician. Using phrases such as “There is no such language as Kurdish in my vocabulary,” the attacker was removed from the scene by other citizens present.

Fatoş Erekli took a clear stand and responded calmly to the aggressive woman, saying, “If there is no such language, how did you know that the song I was singing was in Kurdish?” The young musician said, “If the people there hadn't held her back, she would have resorted to violence.”

While the footage of the racist incident was widely circulated on social media, the lack of serious response from democratic institutions, and especially from those who claim to stand “shoulder to shoulder against fascism,” has been criticized.

In response to this silence, the Mesopotamia Cultural Center, the Ronahî Berivan Women's Group, and Gökay Akbulut, a member of parliament from the Left Party (Die Linke), took action. Upon learning that the attacker worked as a nurse at a hospital in Mannheim, they conveyed their reactions to the hospital administration.

Following the incident, Fatoş Erekli attended a solidarity meeting at the Mesopotamia Cultural Center. Still reeling from the shock of what had happened, Fatoş Erekli filed a complaint with the assistance of an interpreter. The young musician expressed her determination to take the case to court, saying, “Racism must not go unpunished,” and vowed to continue her struggle.

Fatoş Erekli drew attention to the oppression of Kurdish identity and the Kurdish language in connection with this incident, stating that she would continue to sing in her mother tongue: “No people are enemies. No culture can be denied. A world without war, a world of peace is everyone’s right.”

“We must put a stop to this. We must put a stop to such racist people's attitudes,” said the young musician, emphasizing that she would never stop making music in her mother language. “No one can intimidate us,” she underlined.

Fatoş Erekli, who applied for asylum in Germany in November 2022 and was granted asylum a year later, is practicing her art in cities such as Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Mannheim, Heidelberg, Heilbronn, and Darmstadt.