Turkey slams Germany over HDP rally
ANKARA – Anadolu Agency
Turkey on May 26 criticized German authorities for allowing a Turkish opposition party to hold a rally officials said was organized by supporters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), considered a terrorist organization by the Turkish government.
In a message posted on Twitter, Turkey’s EU Minister Ömer Çelik said Germany’s permission “is not compatible with a genuine notion of democracy and law. A terrorist show has been staged on the permission of German authorities.”
His remarks came hours after Turkey’s opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which the government accuses of being a political front for the PKK, held a rally in the German city of Cologne on May 26.
Almost a thousand of their supporters gathered in Neumarkt square in Cologne, a spokesman for the German police told state-run Anadolu Agency.
The police did not allow PKK symbols and banners during the rally. However, the group chanted slogans against Turkey and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
“Permission granted by official authorities to such terrorist activities which in fact should be fought against in the name of democracy and law only means that terror is patronized. This cannot be explained away with any justification whatsoever,” Çelik said.
He said the German authorities’ “patronizing terrorism” was an attack on their own democracy.
“Democracies which discriminate between terrorist organizations as good or bad ones only weaken their own legitimacy,” he said.
Çelik said the PKK was allowed on the permission of German authorities which “openly allow a terrorist organization to organize an activity in the midst of Europe.”
“The notion of democracy and law of the ones who grant permission to such activities only equals to terrorist organizations’ notion of democracy and law,” Çelik stated.
Terrorism is a crime against humanity, Çelik said, adding that “the ones who allow a terrorist show cannot claim that they fight with the crimes against humanity.”
Germany is ‘two-faced’
The Turkish Foreign Ministry said on May 26 it condemned as a “double standard” decision by Germany to allow a rally by the HDP in Cologne but previously prevented ruling party politicians from campaigning there
“This two-faced approach, which we condemn strongly, cannot be reconciled with democracy, the fight against terrorism and expectations of normalization in Turkish-Germany relations,” the ministry said in the statement.