President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Aug. 19 slammed German Foreign Minister Sigmar Garbiel over his remarks suggesting that Ankara was intervening in German elections, urging him to know his limits. Hurriyet reports.
“Now they have a foreign minister who does not know his limits. Who are you to talk to the President of Turkey? Talk to the Foreign Minister of Turkey. Know your limits. He is trying to teach us a lesson. What is your background in politics? How old are you?” Erdoğan said speaking at his Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) provincial advisory council meeting in the Aegean province of Denizli.
Erdoğan said he had sent the dossiers of some 4,500 suspects in Germany to Chancellor Angela Merkel for extradition but they had not been accepted.
“And she wanted one or two people to be sent home by me. Forgive me but you have your legal system and so do we,” Erdoğan said.
Erdoğan also reiterated his call on Turkish citizens in Germany to cast their votes to parties that does not engage in enmity against Turkey.
“You should give them the most beautiful lesson by providing your democratic right in the most ideal way on ballots. Do not say that my vote will be in lost if I vote for this or that party. You should vote for those who are not hostile to Turkey,” he said.
He added that it was not important for Turkey whether Germany opened its doors, saying that Ankara will gladly approach countries that open their doors.
Erdoğan on Aug. 18 called on Turkish-origin German citizens not to vote for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats, Martin Schulz’s Social Democrat Party (SDP) or the Green Party because he said they showed an anti-Turkey stance.
Gabriel criticized the president’s remarks saying they constituted an interference in the German general election, which is scheduled to take place on Sept. 24.
Commenting on the German Chancellor’s earlier remarks on not pursuing an update for Customs Union with Ankara, Erdoğan said the country would not allow the agreement to be turned into a “tool of political oppression” apart from its own medium.