Unknown perpetrators believed to be far-right extremists set fire to the car of a Berlin politician with Kurdish roots early on Friday morning, city authorities reported.
Evrim Baba, who has repeatedly taken a stand against far-right activity in her political career, is a member of the Berlin city parliament for the socialist Left party.
The politician said she believed the attack came from the neo-Nazi scene after recently receiving a number of threats. Several days ago a smelly liquid was also thrown inside the 39-year-old’s car, rendering it unusable.
City politicians from both Baba’s party and the centre-left Social Democrats condemned the attack.
Baba fled with her family from the Turkey's then military regime as an eight-year-old child and worked as an interpreter before becoming a member of the Berlin legislature in 1999.
She is the Left party’s speaker on women’s issues in the capital.
The fire attack on Baba’s car follows a similar crime in which two cars were burned outside conservative Berlin politician Robbin Juhnke’s home in the summer of 2009. In that case left-wing anarchists claimed responsibility
The Local De