Turkish Recep Tayyip Erdoğan arrived in Germany on Thursday for a three-day state visit. Several demos have been planned around the capital Berlin as Erdoğan prepares for a state banquet and a mosque opening in Cologne, according to a report by Deutsche Welle (DW).
Erdoğan landed in Berlin’s Tegel airport around midday on Thursday to begin a controversial visit, decorated with full state honors, while thousands of demonstrators got ready to express their anger at the leader’s authoritarian rule.
Large parts of central Berlin were shut down for the trip, partly to provide a security cordon around the chancellery, the president’s Bellevue Palace, and the historic Adlon Hotel, where Erdoğan and his entourage are staying, and partly to make space for several major demos. The nature of the demos reflect the many human rights issues that Erdoğan’s long-term rule in Turkey has produced.
Organizations representing journalists and various minorities in Turkey, including Kurds and Alevites, have called protests, while an alliance of left-wing organizations is staging a protest march through the city entitled “Erdoğan Not Welcome,” at which 10,000 people are expected.
The Platform called on all democrats to join the rallies in Berlin and Cologne. “A dictator will come to Berlin – and will be welcomed with full honors”, said the call and added that “Erdogan will ask for German support regarding his war politics – again. Once more, there will be weapon deals, approved credits and concerted investments into Turkish economy. The visit of the German minister for economics, including his 80 companies, at the end of October, suits the picture. Erdoğan‘s visit to Berlin gives reason to protest to those who fight for democracy, freedom, and peace all over the world.”
The call continued to say that “Thousands of HDP-members are in Turkish prisons, as well as hundreds of journalists and tens of thousands of political activists. Curfews, the prohibition of demonstrations as well as ongoing military operations are a daily phenomena in the south east of Turkey. There are hundreds of thousands of people seeking refuge because of continuous military operations.”
The Platform also said that “We are suffering from the dictatorship of Erdoğan in Germany, too. The Turkish secret service MİT is threatening political activists with assassinations. DİTİB uses its almost 1000 mosques and even children, to spread nationalist war propaganda.”
Meanwhile the German Federation of Journalists and Amnesty International also said they will hold a joint rally in Berlin to protest at Erdoğan’s visit. The head of the German Federation of Journalists (DJV) has said the Turkish President’s visit to Germany is a “slap in the face.” The rally has been promoted by Amnesty International, Reporters Without Borders and the German Journalists’ Union (DJU).
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier had effectively conceded that the “abolition of press freedom is a purely Turkish affair that has no bearing on relations with Germany,” DJV chief Frank Überall said about the head of state decision to meet the Turkish President.
More controversy arose after pro-Erdoğan Turkish-Islamic organization DİTİB confirmed that the Turkish president would open the new central mosque in Cologne, the country’s largest. However, embassy spokesperson Refik Soğukoğlu told the DPA news agency that “a major speech was not planned” as part of the opening ceremony. The Berlin demonstration will be on Friday 28 while the rally in Cologne will be on Saturday 29.
During the course of the three-day trip, Erdoğan will have two meetings and a joint press conference with German Chancellor Merkel. He is also set to receive military honors at Berlin’s Bellevue Palace, where he will be German President Steinmeier’s guest of honor at a state banquet on Friday evening.
Erdoğan is being accompanied by four senior cabinet ministers as well as Hakan Fidan, the head of Turkey’s notorious National Intelligence Organization (MİT).
Several opposition politicians have announced they will be boycotting the state banquet. On Saturday, Erdoğan is due to open a new mosque in Cologne built by the pro-Erdoğan DİTİB.
Hundreds of thousands of people in Turkey have been the subject of legal proceedings in the last two years on charges of membership in the Gülen movement since a coup attempt on July 15, 2016, a Turkish Justice Ministry official told a symposium on July 19, 2018.
“Legal proceedings have been carried out against 445,000 members of this organization,” Turkey’s pro-government Islamist news agency İLKHA quoted Turkish Justice Ministry Deputy Undersecretary Ömer Faruk Aydıner as saying.
Turkey survived a controversial military coup attempt on July 15, 2016, that killed 249 people. Immediately after the putsch, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement.
Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the movement, strongly denied having any role in the failed coup and called for an international investigation into it, but President Erdoğan — calling the coup attempt “a gift from God” — and the government initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.
Turkey has suspended or dismissed about 170,000 judges, teachers, police and civil servants since July 15, 2016. On December 13, 2017, the Justice Ministry announced that 169,013 people have been the subject of legal proceedings on coup charges since the failed coup.
Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu announced on April 18, 2018, that the Turkish government had jailed 77,081 people between July 15, 2016, and April 11, 2018, over alleged links to the Gülen movement.
The post Turkish President Erdoğan lands in Berlin for controversial state visit appeared first on Stockholm Center for Freedom.
from Stockholm Center for Freedom https://stockholmcf.org/turkish-president-erdogan-lands-in-berlin-for-controversial-state-visit/
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