ERDOGAN OUTBURST STOKES ROW WITH GERMANY
Turkish leader warns of reprisals against critics of his crackdown
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stoked his increasingly bitter dispute with fellow Nato-member Germany yesterday, threatening reprisals if Turkey was punished for its crackdown on opponents following last year’s failed coup.
Mr Erdogan’s strident rhetoric, accusing western countries of allowing their agents to “roam freely” in Turkey, threatened to overshadow talks between his foreign minister and European Union officials seeking to contain the fallout from the long-running row.
Germany last week threatened a series of measures that would put further strain on Turkey’s struggling economy following the arrest of a German human rights worker for alleged terrorist offences. It was the latest flashpoint between the two countries.
The threats included cutting the flow of EU funding to Ankara and reducing government support for German businesses in Turkey. It produced a fiery response from the president.
“If you think you can scare Turkey with embargoes, you must first be ready for much bigger consequences,” said the president at a meeting with his AK party. “Are you sure you know who you are hitting?”
The dispute came before a day of “constructive” talks between Turkey’s foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and the EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini in Brussels.
The talks were focused on combating terrorism, immigration, improving trade and Turkey’s bid for EU accession, said officials. Turkey has sought membership of the EU for three decades, but talks that started in 2005 are in deep freeze and the country has turned its gaze eastwards and formed closer ties with Russia.
The European Union has criticised the Turkish authorities for rounding up about 50,000 people after the July 2016 coup attempt that Mr Erdogan has blamed on a US-based cleric. The military, universities and civil service has been purged with the president accusing Germany – home to three million Germans of Turkish descent – of harbouring plotters.
Human rights activists urged the EU to use the meeting to press Ankara to release rights workers and journalists. Seventeen employees of one of Turkey’s last opposition newspapers went on trial yesterday on charges including helping an armed terrorist organisation. They could face 43 years in jail.
Standing alongside Mr Cavusoglu, Ms Mogherini highlighted the “worrying trend” of imprisonment of journalists, human rights workers and other civilians. Continued co-operation between the two sides depended on “concrete positive steps in areas such as the rule of law and fundamental freedoms”, she said.
“This meeting is really about damage limitation between Turkey and Germany,” said Fadi Hakura, a Turkish specialist at global affairs think tank Chatham House.
The stakes are high for Turkey. Germany is its biggest trading partner with nearly 7,000 companies doing business in the country. The struggling economy presents the greatest challenge to the president’s domestic popularity, despite winning last year’s referendum.
Tensions have escalated since Germany pulled its troops out of a Turkish air base, and ministers from the Erdogan government were stopped from campaigning in cities with high Turkish populations before last year’s referendum that expanded his powers.
Mr Erdogan has a history of using rhetoric to shore up his support among conservative religious support base, while failing to act on threats.
He has failed to act on the threat of ending an accord that commits Turkey to preventing an unrestricted flow of Syrian migrants into Europe in return for EU aid. Last week, Germany threatened to restrict that aid.
Despite yesterday’s strident language, Turkey has sought to limit damage from the dispute and dropped a request to Germany to investigate hundreds of German companies for suspected links to terrorism.
The EU’s top official for relations with neighbouring states said yesterday that day-to-day relations between the bloc and Turkey were better than the rhetoric suggested.
If you think you can scare Turkey with embargoes, you must first be ready for much bigger consequences