Germany has its own Obama

BERLIN, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- Germany has its own Barack Obama-like success story with the election of the first German of Turkish origin as head of a major German party.

Cem Oezdemir, 42, was elected co-leader of the Green Party over the weekend, causing headlines not only because he is the first German of Turkish descent to head a major party, but also the first Muslim to do so.

His fans already have invented a slogan for the man they call the "green Obama." "Yes, we Cem!" their buttons read during the weekend's Green Party congress.

Yet Oezdemir, who was born in Germany as the son of Turkish immigrants, doesn't like the comparison too much.

"It's enough for me to be the Oezdemir of the Greens," he said, adding that Germany still has to come a long way before minorities have an equal chance in politics.

"I wish that one day it will not matter whether you come from (Turkey) or whether your forefathers battled against the Romans in the Teutonic Forest massacre," he told German and Turkish newspapers. "Your origin should not be an indicator of whether you are doing your bit for Germany. … Germany is still a developing country as far as having an open society goes."

Nearly 3 million ethnic Turks live in Germany, making it the largest minority in the country.