France, Germany condemn unrelenting Turkish attacks
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Istanbul, March 16, 2017 (dpa/NAN) German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande on Thursday condemned Turkey’s “aggressive” rhetoric in a row over its campaign efforts in European countries.
In a joint statement, the two leaders said that “comparisons to Nazism or aggressive declarations against Germany and other states are unacceptable”.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan likened the German and Dutch governments to the Nazi regime for preventing his ministers from campaigning there.
He has been lobbying Europe’s Turkish population to vote for constitutional reform that would grant him greater powers,
He renewed the attacks on Thursday by accusing Europe of “first-class fascism”.
“My dear brothers, they have started a battle between the cross and the crescent.
“There can be no other explanation,” Erdogan said while referring to a European court ruling on Wednesday for allowing employers to ban the headscarf.
Merkel and Hollande said they would allow campaign events by members of Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) under certain conditions.
“Such events can be organised if all conditions are fulfilled in strict conformity with German or French law, in full transparency, and respecting legal time frames,” the statement said.
The diplomatic row between Turkey and several European countries escalated last week when the Netherlands prevented Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu from entering the country to hold a rally in Rotterdam.
Cavusoglu said at a campaign rally in western Turkey that Europe was losing its unity.
“Religious wars will soon begin in Europe… If things continue as they are, then it will be so.
“You will learn how to behave toward us.
“If you do not learn, we will teach you,” he said.
NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, called on all NATO member states including Turkey, Germany and France to tone down their “rhetoric” and focus on exterior threats.
“My message to all NATO members is that they contribute to lowering tensions and our conflict so that we avoid creating problems between NATO countries.
“NATO countries should focus more on exterior threats facing the alliance,” Stoltenberg said after a meeting with the Danish parliament’s foreign affairs committee noting terrorism and a more assertive Russia.
Reacting to the Dutch elections that took place on Wednesday, in which the centre-right emerged as the largest party, Cavusoglu said: “there is not any difference between the Social Democrats and the fascist Wilders”.
“ They all have the same mentality.”
Erdogan addressed the recent elections in his speech, saying to Prime Minister Mark Rutte “you may have won the election as the largest party, but you must know you have lost Turkey as a friend”.
In the Netherlands as well as in Austria, Germany and France, governments are under pressure from populist opposition parties and public opinion to take a tough stance toward Turkey.
Also on Thursday, a venue in the German city of Bremerhaven cancelled a campaign event scheduled for Sunday that would have seen AKP lawmaker Sema Kirci speaking in favour of constitutional reform.
Bremerhaven mayor Melf Grantz welcomed the cancellation.
Meanwhile, local authorities in the city of Hanover cancelled a Turkish campaign event set to take place there on Friday.
Mehmet Medi Eker, deputy head of the AKP, was planning to lobby the local Turkish population on the reform efforts. (dpa/NAN)
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Edited by Celine-Damilola Oyewole/Abdullahi Yusuf