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Turkey on Thursday urged Europe to take steps against racism and xenophobia after shootings in the western German city of Hanau on Wednesday evening.
The incident is "a new and grave manifestation of rising racism and hostility to Islam," Turkey's Foreign Ministry said in a written statement.
The ministry stressed that the shootings cannot be considered as an individual attack.
"The insensitivity shown in the fight against increasing xenophobia in Europe causes new attacks every day," the ministry said, calling on international actors to stop these attacks.
"Otherwise, racism and xenophobia will be able to reach much more serious levels and go to dangerous places," said the statement.
"The way to effectively combat racism, xenophobia, and anti-Islam is, above all, avoiding this encouraging approach and taking effective measures against it," it added.
Ankara called on all European countries to unite against racism and xenophobia and speak with one voice.
"We are determined to show the necessary cooperation in the bilateral and international arena in combating all kinds of racism and we will continue our sincere efforts in this direction," said the statement.
On Wednesday night, a German far-right extremist killed at least nine people in twin shootings.
Five Turkish citizens were among the victims, semi-official Anadolu Agency quoted Turkey's Ambassador to Berlin Ali Kemal Aydin as saying.
"I am confident that the German authorities will make every effort to shed light on all aspects (of the incident)," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
