Status: 15.11.2023, 13:07 PM
By: Erkan Pehlivan
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On Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Berlin. © IMAGO/Alexei Nikolsky
On Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Berlin. Hardly any other visit by a state guest has been so heavily criticized. And there are good reasons for that.
Berlin – On Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will travel to Berlin and meet with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. For weeks, there have been voices criticizing the visit of the Turkish president. The reason for this is the human rights violations at home and abroad as well as Erdogan's anti-Semitic statements. The meeting with Erdogan will not be cancelled and the previous planning will remain, said government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit on Monday (13 November).
Erdogan as Hamas' mouthpiece
On Thursday, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) called on all members of the Bundestag to force the Chancellor to disinvite the Turkish president. "The visit planned for November 17 would send a fatal signal to all enemies of freedom and human rights and would damage Germany's reputation," the paper says. Erdogan has made himself the mouthpiece of the terrorist militia Hamas, in which he has declared it a "liberation group". At the same time, he has Turkey's neighboring countries bombed on a daily basis in order to expel the minorities living there and to Islamize the region," said Dr. Kamal Sido, the STP's Middle East expert.
Burak Çopur says: Erdogan's visit should have been cancelled
The head of the Centre for Radicalisation Research and Prevention (ZRP), Professor Burak Çopur, is also disappointed with the German government in an interview with fr.de of IPPEN. MEDIA. "If all the impressive speeches from Steinmeier to Habeck to Cem Özdemir regarding anti-Semitism are serious and represent Germany's opinion, then the Chancellor would have followed up these wise words of the speakers with deeds."
Çopur makes it clear what this means: the meeting with Erdogan would have had to be cancelled "for scheduling reasons". "Now these statements remain nothing more than fine speeches and empty phrases, and Germany is only showing once again that interests in refugee and security policy take precedence over proclaimed values and convictions about anti-Semitism."
Turkey deliberately destroys livelihoods of the people in northeast Syria
Criticism of Turkey also comes from the aid organization medico international, especially because of its human rights violations and attacks on northeast Syria (Kurdish: Rojava). "Turkey has been attacking civilian infrastructure in northern Syria for days. The livelihoods of the population in the region are being deliberately destroyed. Within three days, over 145 targets were hit in all cities. So far, dozens of people have been killed and injured, and 80 percent of civilian facilities have been damaged: water and energy supplies, hospitals and schools, oil fields, factories and warehouses," reads a report on the charity's website.
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Erdogan's visit a slap in the face of the Jewish population
The Kurdish Community of Germany (KGD) sees Erdogan's visit as a kind of affront to Israel and the Jews in this country. "In light of the current events in the Middle East, the reception of Erdogan as a state guest of the Federal Republic of Germany is a slap in the face of the Jewish population in Germany and Israel. Like hardly any other head of state, Erdogan, even compared to other Muslim countries, has not only appointed the terrorist organization Hamas as liberation fighters, but has also unanimously questioned Israel's right to exist. Anyone who stirs up such anti-Semitic resentment can be neither a partner nor a friend of the West," said the KGD's secretary-general, Cahit Basar, in an interview with IPPEN. MEDIA.
The visit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (centre) to Germany has caused a lot of criticism. © ADEM ALTAN/AFP
Don't drive Turkey into the arms of Russia and China
However, a complete breakdown of relations with Erdogan would be dangerous, exiled journalist Cevheri Güven told fr.de. After all, with millions of refugees, he has a joker against the West. "Erdogan's autocratic regime, his blackmail with refugees and his behaviour against NATO membership are intolerable for Western countries."
But a break in Turkey's relations with Western countries because of the Erdogan regime would push the country even more towards the Russia-China pact, Güven said: "It is more reasonable to put pressure on the Erdogan regime and at the same time keep Turkey in the Western pact." (erpe)