Erdoğan slams Germany over meeting ban

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has slammed Germany over its decision to ban Turkish ministers from holding events in two German cities ahead of the April 16 constitutional referendum that will decide whether the current parliamentary system should be shifted to an executive presidency.

کد خبر: ۶۷۳۵۵۸

تاریخ: ۱۴ اسفند ۱۳۹۵ - ۱۳:۱۸

"They need to be put on trial for aiding and abetting terror,” Erdoğan said late on March 3, slamming German authorities for "letting the members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leaders to hold rallies while preventing Turkish leaders from addressing their communities.”

On March 2, the municipality of Gaggenau in southwest Germany revoked its permission for Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ's meeting, citing concerns about overcrowding. This prompted Bozdağ to cancel his planned visit to Germany altogether.

Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci’s planned address on March 5 to a Turkish community in western city of Cologne was also cancelled by local authorities over security concerns.

Germany also barred President Erdoğan from holding a planned rally with Germany-based Turkish citizens last year, after the failed July 2016 military coup attempt, widely believed to have been masterminded by the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ).

During his speech, Erdoğan commented on the aforementioned incident.

"I was to participate at a rally via a video conference, but Germany’s Constitutional Court took a decision in two hours, which is a phenomenon not seen anywhere in the world, and prevented me from making a speech,” he said.

Erdoğan also said that Germany allowed PKK figure Cemil Bayık to address a crowd in Germany.

"But they are connecting Cemil Bayık from Kandil and he is making his speech there [Germany]," he said, referring to the Kandil Mountain in northern Iraq where the PKK camps are based.

Germany, home to nearly three million Turkish citizens, is often visited by Turkish politicians ahead of key polls. Votes cast abroad have a significant impact on election results, as the overseas electorate makes up around 5 percent of Turkey’s entire electorate.

Tensions between the two countries escalated last week after German media and politicians sharply criticized Turkey for arrest of Die Welt’s Istanbul correspondent Deniz Yücel on charges of "terror propaganda.”

President Erdoğan responded to Berlin’s criticism of Yücel’s arrest by saying that Yücel was a "German agent” and a member of the PKK.

"It isn't because a correspondent of Die Welt was arrested. It is because this person hid in the German embassy as a member of the PKK and a German agent for one month. When we told them to hand him over to be tried, they refused,” he said.

Erdoğan said he had told German Chancellor Angela Merkel: "Your terrorists are requested by us, and you say justice is impartial and independent. We currently trust our impartial and independent judiciary. Give him up so he can be tried. They first didn't hand him over, but later, somehow, they did. The judiciary did what was necessary and arrested him,” he said.

A source in the German foreign ministry described the suggestion that Yücel, a German-Turkish dual national, was an "agent" as "absurd,” Reuters reported.