German Greens co-chair slams AKP candidate

COLOGNE - Doğan News Agency

Hürriyet Photo

German Green Party co-chair and one of the most prominent European politicians of Turkish descent Cem Özdemir criticized former party member and now parliamentary election candidate for ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Ozan Ceyhun. 

Özdemir cited a remark made by Ceyhun in which he stated his religious self-discovery came after the 1980 coup in Turkey.  

“But he hid this fact very well in Germany. At the time when he was a member of our party’s executive committee, he said terrible things about religion,” Özdemir said May 29 at a meeting.

Özdemir criticized Ceyhun of “dabbling” in every party, including the Green Party, Republican People’s Party (CHP) and AKP, noting that just the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) remained. 

 The German Green Party has decided to lend its support to the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in the upcoming Turkish elections. Ceyhun earlier criticized the party for this decision and called it a “scandal.”

Ceyhun also suggested the HDP was political wing of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).