December 02, 2014

Can you say Tuğçe?

editor:	Murat Suner

A few days ago Germany's police have confirmed the sad news: Tuğçe Albayrak, who was punched when she came to the aid of two girls threatened at a McDonalds in Offenbach, has died from head trauma that resulted when she fell to the ground. Tuğçe was in a coma for two weeks before her life support was switched off on last Friday, her 23rd birthday.

Tuğçe died because she showed civic courage.

Thousands of Germans paid tribute to Ms Albayrak at the weekend.Germany's President Joachim Gauck said she had shown "exemplary courage and moral fortitude". A petition calling for Ms Albayrak, to be awarded the national order for merit posthumously has gathered more than 100,000 signatures. Confirming he would consider the award, President Gauck wrote to her family to say: "Like countless citizens, I am shocked and appalled by this terrible act. Tuğçe has earned gratitude and respect from us all."

Tuğçe was said to be a good person, a lovely student of Turkish origin. Like Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, a gentle young man who lived with his grandmother - he had just left secondary school and was planning to study to become a heating and cooling technician. They are the good ones, the ones we wouldn't need to tolerate.

Particularly, this young girl of Turkish origin we would consider as role model for our society, wouldn't we?

But do you know how to pronounce her name? Can you say Tuğçe? Say it: It's like Too-che.

Honestly, have you ever asked someone of let's say Turkish origin how to say her or his name?

Mesut Özil made all his way up to the German national football team, finally winning the world cup for his country - still to hear his name pronounced in a wrong way in TV. It takes 30 seconds to either ask or google it.

Isn't the name the first thing we receive after birth that makes us an individual, a member of the family of humans? To pronounce a name correctly is an equivalent of appreciation and respect, sort of a currency of acknowledgement by others.

President Gauck said that "Tuğçe has earned gratitude and respect from us all." Did she really need to earn it?

May be that's why we still debate about tolerance in Germany instead of respecting each other.