GERMAN STARS FACE IRE FOR TURKEY PREZ MEET
Berlin/ Dortmund, May 15: Two top German soccer players made a mistake by posing for a photo with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman and national soccer coach Joachim Loew said on Tuesday, amid concerns over Turkey’s human rights record.
The pictures, taken in London on Sunday and published by Erdogan’s ruling AK Party, show Mesut Ozil and Ilkay Gundogan standing next to the president, all beaming, and giving him shirts from their English clubs — Arsenal and Manchester City.
Gundogan’s shirt had “With respect for my president” written on it. He later said it was not the intention of the two players, who have Turkish roots, to make a political statement or be drawn into campaigning for Turkey’s elections next month.
The photos unleashed a storm of criticism from lawmakers across Germany’s political spectrum and the DFB football federation, all of whom argued that Erdogan does not sufficiently respect German values.
“From the side of the federation, it was made clear to them that it was an unfortunate action. When you play for Germany you represent German values,” Loew said at a news conference to name his provisional squad for the World Cup in Russia. Both Ozil and Gundogan are in that squad.
Ties between the European Union and Turkey have deteriorated over the past two years amid a crackdown by Erdogan’s government on suspected supporters of a failed military coup in July 2016. Turkey has shut down media outlets, detained 160,000 people and sacked nearly the same number of public employees. It says the crackdown is needed for security reasons.
DFB soccer federation president Reinhard Grindel said he believed the two knew they had made a mistake.
Merkel’s spokesman also weighed into the debate, welcoming Gundogan’s statement which also made clear that the players stood by German values.