Germany-Turkey conflict widens

[Melech 9,900]

"Germany’s foreign minister has announced a significant “reorientation” of its policy towards Turkey after a human rights activist became the latest German citizen to be detained for alleged terrorist activity.

“We need our policies towards Turkey to go in a new direction ... we can’t continue as we have done until now,” Sigmar Gabriel told reporters at a press conference in Berlin on Thursday. “We need to be clearer than we have been until now so those responsible in Ankara understand that such policies are not without consequences.”

Berlin has issued new travel warnings of risks in Turkey for German tourists, and Gabriel said his government could no longer guarantee German corporate investment in Turkey after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government accused several companies including Daimler and BASF of ties to the movement of his political enemy Fethullah Gülen.

Gabriel also said he could not envisage talks on expanding the customs union to Turkey and would talk to other EU leaders about reviewing pre-accession funds being offered to Turkey.

The announcement marks a further deterioration of increasingly strained relations between the two countries.

Six people, including German human rights consultant Peter Steudtner and Amnesty International’s country director, Idil Eser, are awaiting trial in Turkey for allegedly aiding a terror group.

The Turkey correspondent of the German broadsheet Die Welt, Deniz Yücel, has been detained on charges of propaganda in support of a terrorist organisation since February. Pre-trial detention in Turkey can last for up to five years.

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, views the series of measures announced by Gabriel as “necessary and unavoidable”, her spokesman said in a tweet.

Reacting to the measures, Erdoğan’s spokesman said the two countries had “good relations”. 

“It is not possible for us to accept statements aiming to blur the economic environment based on political motivation, we hope they turn back from this,” Ibrahim Kalin told a news conference in Ankara."

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/20/berlin-to-change-policy-towards-turkey-as-german-citizen-is-held

 

[Miley 5,006]

I mean Turkey is a mess of country. Not saying the turks are, but the Turkish government is. Good that some countries are brave enough to say enough when it's enough. 

[bumblebee 2,528]

Erdoğan is feeling particularly cocky now, because he thinks that Turkey's role in the future of Europe will rise anyway because Turkey is arranged to benefit from the transit of Russian gas pipeline to Europe via the new pipeline that is under construction.