Turkey Playing 'Victim Role' before Vote: German Minister
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere Tuesday said Ankara was playing the role of the victim with its broadsides against NATO allies, as it seeks to galvanize support ahead of a key referendum.
"The statements from Turkey are... absurd, have no real foundation, and have the sole aim of putting Turkey in a victim's role in order to build solidarity" among voters, he said, a day after Ankara accused Chancellor Angela Merkel of "supporting terrorists".
Turkey has been heaping accusations on Germany, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accusing it of "Nazi practices" after several German towns blocked rallies by Turkish ministers campaigning in favor of the referendum to scrap the prime minister's post, AFP reported.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu also sparked consternation when he made an ultra-nationalist hand-sign known as the "Wolf's Greeting" during a campaign appearance in Hamburg.
While stopping short of pronouncing an all-out ban on future rallies by Turkish politicians in Germany, De Maiziere signaled that he has had enough of Ankara's provocations.
"There are clear limits beyond which my tolerance ends, this includes when the limits of what is punishable are crossed -- when foreign ministers make the Wolf's Greeting on German soil, or discredit our country with disrespectful Nazi comparisons," he said.
He also voiced displeasure that Turkish domestic political tensions are being increasingly imported to Germany.
De Maiziere Sunday said he was against Turkish rallies in Germany, and had signaled that there are legal ways to halt them.
The latest row over rallies is one in a long list of issues surrounding human rights and freedom of expression that plague Ankara-Berlin ties, particularly since the failed military coup against Erdogan in July.
Berlin has emerged as a strident critic of Ankara's post-coup crackdown, which has seen more than 100,000 people arrested or dismissed from their posts over alleged links to the plotters or to Kurdish militants.
