The Turkish Association in Germany has accused the government of promoting a “racist” interpretation of crime statistics.
The criticism follows the release of the latest police crime figures, which show a mixed trend. While overall recorded crime fell by 5.6% in 2025 to around 5.5 million cases—largely due to changes in drug laws—serious offences increased. Murder and manslaughter rose by 6.5%, while rape and other serious sexual offences climbed by 8.5%. Knife-related incidents also remained high, with around 29,000 cases recorded, averaging roughly 80 per day.
At the same time, the data indicates that non-German nationals are overrepresented among suspects, particularly in violent crime. Adjusted for their share of the population, foreign nationals were recorded as suspects at a rate around 2.6 times higher than German citizens, rising to roughly four times higher in violent offences. Among foreign suspects, the most commonly recorded nationalities include Turkey, Syria, Romania, Ukraine, Poland, and Afghanistan.
The Turkish Association, however, strongly disputes how these figures are being presented. Its federal chairman, Mehtap Çağlar, accused Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt of politically staging the statistics and using them to
create a mood against people with a migration history.
The association argues that the police crime statistics primarily reflect law enforcement activity rather than actual crime levels or underlying causes.
It also points to structural factors that may influence the data. According to the association, migrants are more likely to be reported to the police, which can distort the figures.
