A top German PM has accused the Turkish President of conducting a Third Reich-style foreign policy and called him a terrorist.
Head of the German Left Party’s parliamentary faction, Sahra Wagenknecht (Photo: EPA)
Head of the German Left Party’s parliamentary faction, Sahra Wagenknecht, has called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a “terrorism Godfather” and accused the politician of conducting a Third Reich-style foreign policy. The statements were made during her speech to other members of the parliament in the Bundestag, after Ankara’s Nazi-themed mockeries over a ban on Turkish rallies in Germany.
“Turkey’s foreign policy priorities… are reminiscent of the Third Reich,” Wagenknecht said. “Namely, it seeks to install [Turkish] minorities in other countries in order to pursue [Turkey’s] own violence-based policy, own geopolitics as well as its own policy of suppression there.”
The top German MP also mentioned the Turkish president as a “terrorist Godfather.”
“This is a call for terrorism. Here speaks a terrorist, as simple as that,” the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper quoted her words.
Wagenknecht meant statements, made by the Turkish President last week, according to which Europe would find itself in danger unless the EU dropped its alleged policy of suppressing Turkish political activism.
“If you continue to behave like this, tomorrow in no part of the world, no European, no Westerner will be able to take steps on the street safely and peacefully,” Erdogan said last Thursday.
Earlier in March, two German states did not allow conducting of a number of pro-Erdogan rallies, aimed on supporting of expanding presidential powers in Turkey. In retaliation, Erdogan likened Germany’s policy to “Nazi measures,” as well as slammed some European countries, such as the Netherlands, for employing “fascist” or “Nazi-like” policies.
Later, Germany urged Turkey to consider ethical standards and end its anti-German rhetoric.