Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s upcoming visit to Berlin continues to provoke reactions in Germany. The president of the Jewish cultural community of Munich and Upper Bavaria, Charlotte Knobloch, criticized the German government’s invitation, calling it a “mistake.”
“I think it is absolutely wrong to offer him a platform in Germany, especially at a time when Israel is under threat,” – Ms. Knobloch said in an interview with the Tagesspiegel newspaper, adding that Turkey “used to be an important ally of the West, but now it is moving away from it”. “I suspect,” she said, “that Turkey is now siding with Iran.”
The Turkish President is expected to visit Berlin on November 17 and 18, following his recent statements about “war crimes” Israel, which the West “covers” and about “Jewish genocide” in the Gaza Strip. In the same vein, Erdogan expressed the view that Hamas is not a terrorist organization, but a liberation group fighting to protect the country and its citizens.
It should be noted that a few days ago, the Secretary General of the ruling Liberal Party (FDP), Bizan Jir-Saray, expressed serious reservations regarding the possibility of President Erdogan’s visit to Germany in mid-November. “Erdogan’s constant hate speech against Israel and his solidarity with the terrorist organization Hamas are unacceptable. This must have consequences and cannot be ignored by the German government.”– Jir-Saray told DPA.
The trip would be “extremely problematic in this context… It is more than doubtful that we should welcome the Turkish President to Germany in this context”, said the FDP politician. Masit Karahmetoğlu, an SPD lawmaker who chairs the German-Turkish friendship group, also sharply criticized Erdogan. “He associates the concept of terrorist acts with murder and massacre of innocent people, – he said in an interview with the Berlin newspaper Tagesspiegel. – Chancellor Olaf Scholz must tell Erdogan in no uncertain terms that Downplaying Hamas’s crimes is completely unacceptable.”
Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Soeder, representing the Christian Social Party, also criticized. “It’s dangerous when a NATO member country makes statements like Turkey under Erdogan. This cannot go unanswered,” – he said in yesterday’s edition of the newspaper Münchner Merkur, asking Scholz “speak clearly”.
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