Left Berlin | Migrant Left stands behind Ferat Koçak

Ferat Koçak (Left) has been a member of the Bundestag since 2025. Photo: dpa/Elisa Schu The federal working group “Migrant Left/Links*kanax” in the Left Party has expressed its support for the criticized Left Bundestag member Ferat Koçak. “We stand behind Ferat,” says a statement on Instagram. »Ferat made a mistake and is responsible for it. But we will not allow a migrant comrade to be held to different standards than everyone else." "Migrant Left/Links*kanax" is a nationwide intra-party association of people whose realities of life are shaped by migration, flight and racism. Koçak is also part of the working group.

Koçak initially withdrew from the public and from the Bundestag's Interior Committee on Tuesday after it became known that he had chatted with an alleged member of a "criminal clan." The directly elected Neukölln MP admitted the contact, described it as a mistake and asked for an apology. "Contacts between elected officials and people who are attributed to organized crime cannot be justified by anything," said Koçak in a statement on According to Left Party leader Sören Pellmann, further consequences are possible. First of all, Koçak's group expects full transparency.

"We will not allow a migrant comrade to be held to different standards than everyone else."

“We are fed up with this disgusting racist double standard that is displayed every damn day by the media and politics,” says the statement from “Migrant Left/Links*kanax”. One will always find reasons to force people with a migration background into a right-wing enemy narrative. "The fact that high-ranking politicians from other parties gamble away billions of taxpayers' money, that right-wing extremists practice nepotism in parliament, that conservatives actually do business and work together with clans is selectively ignored," the group continues.

The “racist smear campaign” is a distraction from the fact that the Left has become the strongest force in Berlin after the election to the House of Representatives, it goes on to say. “The SPD and the Greens do not want to implement the democratic will of the majority of Berliners.” The “Migrant Left/Links*kanax” is referring to the upcoming coalition negotiations between the Left, the Greens and the SPD in Berlin.

Several Green members of the Bundestag had previously demanded that the Left should exclude Koçak from the Bundestag faction. The leader of the Green Party in the Bundestag, Katharina Dröge, made the start. She suggested this to the Left parliamentary group leader Heidi Reichinnek on Tuesday. Koçak repeatedly took part in events where people appeared where it was clear from the outset "that they were glorifying terror, where it was clear from the outset that they were questioning Israel's right to exist, and where it was clear from the outset how anti-Semitic they were," said Dröge. "And that's why I would recommend to Heidi Reichinnek that Mr. Koçak is not part of the Left Party faction." At the same time, Dröge expressed doubts about Koçak's explanations about his contacts with organized crime in Berlin.

“Red lines are needed here, especially in the fight against anti-Semitism,” said Green Party Parliamentary Secretary Irene Mihalic on Wednesday in Berlin. She also called on the Left parliamentary group to exclude MP Ferat Koçak because of his contacts in the Berlin clan milieu. With his "openly displayed sympathy" for "big names in organized crime" and "people who come from the support circles of terrorist organizations," Koçak tried to make certain milieus "socially acceptable," criticized Mihalic.

Koçak is a well-known critic of the concept of “clan crime.” “Criminal clans” are large families of Arab or Kurdish origin who are suspected of being part of organized crime. Critics point out that this concept means that people are targeted by security authorities simply because of their last name and that migrant-dominated parts of the city in particular are stigmatized by excessive police operations.

Koçak surprisingly won his Neukölln constituency outright in the federal election - the first time for the Left in the former West Berlin. He was previously a member of the Berlin House of Representatives from 2021 to 2025. He became known nationally after neo-Nazis carried out an arson attack on his family's home in 2018. This was part of a series of right-wing attacks in the district that became known as the “Neukölln complex.” Research revealed that both the police and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution were informed that two well-known Neukölln neo-Nazis had observed and followed Koçak in the weeks before the attack. with dpa

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