‘Enlist Gulen as a terrorist group’
TURKISH President Tayyip Erdogan, on the eve of a visit to Germany yesterday, urged it to designate as a terrorist organisation the Fethullah Gulen movement, which Turkey blames for a 2016 coup attempt.
His call, in an article published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper, brought into focus the policy gulf between the two countries as Erdogan arrived, seeking to repair strained political and commercial ties.
Germany has so far said it needs more proof linking the network of supporters of the US-based cleric, which Turkey labels the Gulenist Terrorist Organisation (FETO), to the failed attempt to overthrow the Turkish government.
Germany should “recognise FETO is responsible for the attempted putsch, just as Britain did,” Erdogan wrote in an article, published on Wednesday.
Germany’s refusal to extradite military officers Turkey accuses of participating in the coup attempt, after they claimed asylum, enraged Ankara. Berlin is concerned about the fate of tens of thousands of people imprisoned in the subsequent crackdown who included dozens of German citizens.
Erdogan’s state visit to Germany, during which he will meet Chancellor Angela Merkel three times, comes with Turkey’s economy in crisis.
Underlining the cool reception Erdogan can expect, demonstrators gathered at a Berlin airport hours before his arrival, protesting over the state of press freedom in Turkey, where dozens of critical journalists are jailed.
Despite the wariness, Berlin, ever conscious of the three-million-strong Turkish diaspora community that calls Germany home, is cautiously welcoming Erdogan’s overtures.
“We have to talk with each other,” junior foreign minister Michael Roth told a public radio channel.
He added that it was “wholly unacceptable” that five German citizens were still imprisoned and that Turkey must move when it comes to the questions of democracy and the rule of law.
Authorities, who fret at Erdogan’s influence over German Turks, have warned him against campaigning overtly when he opens a mosque tomorrow in Cologne, home to one of Germany’s largest Turkish communities.
Germany is also bound to Turkey via its reliance on Ankara to stem the flow of Syrian war refugees to prevent a repeat of events of 2015, when a million migrants arrived in Germany, convulsing European politics and weakening Merkel.