When I first saw the video of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, struggling to locate Berlin on a world map during a geography class in a high school, I thought of Turkish immigrants in Germany, the gastarbeiter.
Merkel, a physical chemist who was elected as the prime minister in one of the countries in the world with the highest rates of higher education, didn't only have trouble locating her own capital, but also placed it instead somewhere near Siberia.
Moreover, when a teacher warned her, Merkel initially declined to accept reality, saying, "No, but what is here?"
I bet that if you ask the same question to the first-generation Turkish immigrants, who have been ridiculed and scapegoated by the right-wing politicians in Germany, each of them could do a better job in spotting Berlin on the same map.
Such ignorance is not rare among right-wing populists, though:
Remember that Nicolas Sarkozy, former President of France, had once told that he was against Turkey's EU membership, because "this country with 100 million people geographically lies in Asia," violating not only statistical and geographical facts, but also recording a political fallacy, as Cyprus was already admitted to the EU, although it lies in Asia.
For sake of Europe, it is not sad to see that Merkel is on her way out, like her French counterpart.
You can watch the Merkel video if you haven't seen it yet:
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