- Title: After Gaggenau, Cologne also blocks event due to be addressed by Turkish minister
- Date: 3rd March 2017
- Summary: COLOGNE, GERMANY (MARCH 3, 2017) (REUTERS) PAN ACROSS MARKET SQUARE WITH CITY HALL CITY INFORMATION POINT POLICEMEN STANDING IN FRONT OF POLICE CAR WITH BOMB-DETECTION DOGS INSIDE MAN WALKING INTO CITY HALL POLICEMEN STANDING IN FRONT OF BUILDING WINDOW OF CITY HALL OFFENBURG POLICE SPOKESPERSON, KAREN STUERZEL TALKING TO REPORTERS (SOUNDBITE) (German) OFFENBURG POLICE SPO
- Embargoed: 17th March 2017 12:25
- Keywords: Turkey ministers cancellation Gaggenau Cologne bomb threat
- Location: COLOGNE, GERMANY
- City: COLOGNE, GERMANY
- Country: Germany
- Topics: Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA00166EN22V
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Turkey accused Germany on Friday (March 3) of scandalous behaviour in cancelling rallies of Turkish citizens in two German towns due to be addressed by Turkish ministers and said Berlin provided a "shelter" for people committing crimes against his country.
The comments by Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag, who had been scheduled to address a meeting in the south-western town of Gaggenau until it was cancelled on Thursday (March 2), reflected a broader souring of relations between the two NATO allies.
Berlin said it had no part in steps taken by city councils who, according to one mayor, acted purely on security grounds. The foreign ministry was doing all it could to help dialogue.
Gaggenau would have been part of efforts to garner support among 1.5 million Turkish citizens for an April referendum expanding President Tayyip Erdogan's powers - something he has sought with increased urgency since an army bid to topple him.
Erdogan has accused West European countries of failing to condemn the July putsch quickly or strongly enough. West European countries have expressed concern about his crackdown on journalists, judiciary, academics and others accused of links.
The city of Cologne also blocked an event where Economy Minister Nihat Zeybecki was to speak on Sunday (March 5).
"A long time ago a theatre play has been applied for, highly official by the UETD [Union of European Turkish Democrats], then we never heard anything again, no contract was written, there were no contacts and therefore our administration assumed the issue was done with and any thoughts about it were obsolete," district mayor Henk van Benthem explained why the event was taking place in the district of Porz. "This is something which is totally wrong that you at first want to stage a theatre play and then want to stage a undemocratic event in a democratic country. In my view that is totally unacceptable," he added.
Van Benthem also emphasised that the council received positive feedback for their decision to cancel the event on Sunday and also Turkish citizens on the streets of Cologne voiced their support. "I don't think this is right and with the current government it goes in the direction of propaganda and therefore I am not a supporter of this and I am in favour of the cancellation," Guerkan Cam said. His wife Alev Yildiz-Cam added: "I think in a country with no press freedom to claim for itself the right to make propaganda on German ground, it's bad behaviour. They have to mind their own business and see that really everyone gets the freedom of speech there, so that they can speak here as well."
Kemal Kilic though criticised the cancellations. "What I find wrong is that the PKK propaganda here, which is listed as a terror group - they are allowed to do anything here, everything is possible for them, but a Turkish minister is not allowed to speak, these are double standards by the German authorities," he said.
Zeybecki said on Twitter on Friday he still planned to go to Germany.
"We say the victory is God's...I will go from cafe to cafe, house to house," he said. "Nobody should worry, we will still meet with our citizens in Germany."
Authorities in Gaggenau evacuated the city hall on Friday after receiving a bomb threat. Asked if it was linked to the cancellation, mayor Michael Pfeiffer said:
"The one or other detail speaks for this (link), but we will finally know when the police has completed their investigations. We just have to wait for the outcome of the investigations, but it cannot be ruled out."
Turkey itself, a country of great strategic importance to NATO bordering as it does Syria, Iraq and Iran, has been hit by a string of militant attacks over the last year by Islamist militants and Kurdish rebels.
Relations were most recently tested from the German perspective by the arrest, on accusations of propaganda in support of a terrorist organisation, of Deniz Yucel, a correspondent for the prominent Die Welt newspaper, on Monday.
Germany is wary of rising tensions, seeking continued Turkish commitment to arrangements preventing large movements of refugees from Turkey to Europe. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2017. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None