Deputy leader of Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD), Aydan Özoğuz, has been announced as the country’s new state minister for immigration, refugees and integration, thus becoming the first ever Turkish-origin minister to make it to the German federal Cabinet, Hurriyet Daily reports.
Özoğuz is a linguist and second-generation Turk in Germany, the daughter of a merchant family that imported nuts from Turkey in the 1960s. She received 89 percent of the vote at a SPD congress on Dec. 5 and was chosen as one of five vice presidents of the party. She also became the first Turk and the first foreigner to become a deputy leader of the SPD, the newspaper reports.
