At the moment the German government does not confirm confirms Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to Berlin
Comes Tayyip Erdogan in berlin? The news is broadcast by the Turkish media, even writing as the date January 27 or 28. Information from Turkey states that the visit will take place in conjunction with Poland and that he will meet President Frank Walter-Steinmeier and Chancellor Soltz. If verified, it will be the first visit to Germany by the Turkish president in three years, the last one was in January 2020. At that time, Angela Merkel was chancellor and Berlin-Ankara relations were rather unclear. The visit took place in the framework of the International Conference on Libya, but the chancellor had a bilateral meeting with Erdoğan, leaving the other high-ranking participants in the Conference to wait for 20 minutes. Arriving at his hotel in Potsdam Square, supporters of the AKP party had gathered to welcome him.
The vote of the Turks in Germany for Erdogan is critical
Three years later, Turkey has entered the pre-election period for the double ballot in May and the conditions are completely different. Olaf Solz is in the chancellery and Analena Burbock is in the foreign ministry. Both have clearly distanced themselves from the Turkish government’s statements and handling of a number of critical international political issues. As the newspaper Tagesspiegel writes in its paper yesterday, the German government did not want to confirm such a visit. Chancellor Solz visited Turkey in March 2022, two months after taking office, and then the primary issue was the war in Ukraine following the Russian invasion on February 24. On Turkey’s side, President Erdoğan then raised the issue of extraditing Turkish deputies. This time the Ukrainian will be on the agenda again, if the Solz visit and meeting is confirmed. Only because of the many Turkish voters living in Germany – estimated at 1.4 million – a possible visit by Erdogan would mainly serve pre-election purposes.
In view of the crucial elections for him and with the opposition united to field a common presidential candidate, it is most likely that he will want to ask the Turks of Germany to support him in order to be re-elected. Their vote can be decisive. But as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung comments, the Turkish president cannot be allowed to transfer a confrontational election campaign to German soil and use “methods of threats and intimidation tested in Turkey”. The pre-election event at a mosque in Neuss proves once again that the Turkish government is using mosques in Germany to hand over nationalist candidates Turkish or Kurdish dissidents and members of Turkish communities.
“Germany is a scene of hate”
The Welt newspaper in its article today calls this situation a “sad truth” that it should not surprise anyone how openly Turkish nationalists are stirring up unrest against Kurds who are alleged to be Gulenists or anti-establishment. “The situation has become the norm,” the columnist points out. “Every time Erdogan and his nationalist Islamist coalition call for an election campaign, Germany also becomes a scene of hatred.” This is also the case with the words of AKP MP Mustafa Acikgiez at a mosque in Neuss. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution of North Rhine-Westphalia expressed “concern” about the statements of the Turkish politician. And a spokesman for the Dusseldorf Public Prosecutor’s Office said his agency was investigating whether a criminal offense had been committed. The columnist of Welt accuses German politics of slow reflexes, reporting that a pro-AKP lobbyist organization admitted that in the last year and a half it held more than 1,000 events in mosques in Europe, many of them for election purposes, without any protest from the German side. . Even worse. An MP of the Social Democratic Party welcomed a well-known AKP propagandist and Armenian Genocide denier to Parliament without any protests.
To what extent Erdogan will “use” German territory for election campaigning, as he did six years ago, remains to be seen. At the time, the German government had banned all election campaigns by Turkish politicians in Germany, fearing that they would become a site of Turkish conflicts. In general, however, pre-election appearances by foreign politicians must be declared 10 days before they take place and approved by the German government.
Of course, the temptation for Erdogan is great. As the Rheinische Post writes citing Deutsche Welle, the Turkish president is more popular here than in Turkey. In the last elections, he got around 65% of the votes among the Turks in the country. In Turkey the corresponding percentage was just under 53%. On the other hand, many of Erdogan’s opponents also live in Germany, such as journalist Can Dudar, who have been declared enemies of the state by Erdogan. So it remains to be seen to what extent Turkish politicians will respect what is in force in Germany. And first of all, Recep Tayyip Erdogan himself.
DW – Irini Anastasopoulou
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With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.
