Germany Condemns Turkey President Erdogan’s ‘Nazi Practices’ Slur
Austria has already said it will not allow any Turkish politicians to campaign on its territory, and on Sunday it called for an EU-wide ban in solidarity with Germany.
And so, at a rally of his own, Erdogan - who has spent the last seven months jailing thousands of journalists, civil servants, and soldiers after an abortive coup in July - made a decision to liken Germany today to that of the 1930s.
A source in Germany’s foreign ministry on Friday night told Reuters those accusations were “absurd”. “We don’t want to see the Nazi world again, not its fascist deeds”.
Despite the Cologne restriction, Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci vowed to visit the city anyway on Sunday and meet ethnic Turks face-to-face. “In the same countries, the PKK and DHKP-C terrorists are on the streets”, Erdoğan said, referring to an earlier cancelation of his teleconference meeting.
“The whole thing of course takes on an enormous dimension for a small town”, Pfeiffer said. “As the MHP leader, I would go to Europe along with him”, Bahçeli said.
Seibert’s comments came after Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern on Sunday urged the European Union to halt membership talks with Turkey and scrap or restrict 4.5 billion euros in pre-accession aid promised to Turkey until 2020.
Given the significant Turkish and Kurdish populations in Germany, Berlin is anxious to prevent Turkish domestic disputes from spilling into the country.
“Especially if we get a “Yes” vote that comes out of it, then the next stage will be for government in Ankara to try and tone it all back”, suggested columnist Idiz, but he warns it won’t be easy.
“They need to be tried for helping and abetting terrorism”.
The rallies were part of a Turkish government campaign to win the support of Germany’s 1.5 million Turkish immigrant community for an April referendum on a increase in presidential power for Erdogan.
Diplomatic tensions have been rising in recent days amid Turkish plans to have government ministers address rallies in Germany and the Netherlands in support of the referendum that would give Erdogan new powers.
City officials said they canceled that event because organizers had misled them about its goal, saying they were initially told it would be a theater performance. Asked if it was linked to the cancellation, mayor Michael Pfeiffer said: “We presume this at the moment, but we don’t know for sure”.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim spoke on the phone with Merkel on Saturday, in what he called “a good and productive meeting”.
The correspondent for Die Welt newspaper has been accused by Turkish authorities of spreading propaganda of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), that both Turkey and the European Union consider a terrorist organisation.
Erdogan’s harsh words bring to the foreign political arena the heated climate in Turkey since a failed army attempt to topple the president in July. “But they must adhere to existing rules”.