Agence France-Presse reports that Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office has hit back at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s comments following last week’s German recognition of the Armenian Genocide. The Turkish President had announced that the 11 German MPs with Turkish roots who backed the resolution on Genocides in the Ottoman Empire, supported the “terrorist” tactics of the banned Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK). President Erdogan demanded “blood tests” to see “what kind of Turks they are”.
Chancellor Angela Merkel Merkel and spokesman Steffen Seibert
According to AP, Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Monday that while Berlin also considers the PKK a terrorist group, “to associate individual members of parliament with terrorism is utterly incomprehensible to us”.
“The resolution was a political initiative that emerged from the midst of the Bundestag, which is a democratically elected, independent organ under our constitution,” Seibert told a press conference.
“The Bundestag reached a sovereign decision. That must be respected,” Seibert said, adding that this was the message Merkel had given to the Turkish president.
Erdogan singled out German Greens party co-leader Cem Ozdemir, one of the instigators of the resolution passed on June 2.
Cem Ozdemir, Co-chair of the Green Party, member of the Bundestag
Ozdemir has been placed under tight police protection after receiving anonymous death threats via social media and on his personal mail. the German press reposts that all the death threats and the insults sent to Mr. Ozdemir are being forwarded to the Federal Police. The head of Ozdemir‘s office Marc Berthold told Die Welt, “We are thoroughly used to abuse and insults, but we have never experienced such a high number of death threats.”
Ironically, taking the stage before the Bundestag vote, Cem Ozdemir had said, “When I go home tonight I won’t be arrested or beaten. This isn’t true for my colleagues in Turkey fighting for Armenians”
In response to Deniz Yıldız, a journalist from Die Welt, who thanked Özdemir for his efforts, Özdemir wrote, “Others are more loud and aggressive, but there are people like us who look for truth.” In a conversation with the Turkish media, Özdemir has reconfirmed that he stands by his decision.
