German FM summons Türkiye's Ambassador to Germany over provocative speech by AKP MP

Photo: ANF

(Osmanen Germania was a grouping banned by Ministry of Interior of Germany in 2018)

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The Foreign Ministry (FM) of Germany yesterday (January 16) summoned the Ambassador of Türkiye in Berlin to convey a disturbance about a speech by an MP of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) made in Germany.

A speech that MP Mustafa Açıkgöz made at an association in Neuss, Germany leaked on social media, upon which there were reactions in the German public arguing what Açıkgöz said was "hate speech."

Yesterday the Turkish Ambassador was reminded that "there was no place for provocation or hate speech in Germany" and that "Ankara was warned" that such cases should not repeat, announced the FM.

The election campaigns of Turkish political representatives are subject to permission and those who do not comply with the rules would bear the consequences, said the German ministry.

AKP Nevşehir MP Açıkgöz spoke at an event organized by the "Germany Democratic Idealist Turkish Associations Federation" which is a grouping of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) supporters in Germany.

"We will wipe off PKK and FETÖ members"

Açıkgöz says in his leaked speech made on January 13 at the Neuss branch of the federation that "they will wipe off PKK and FETÖ members." He adds "they will not have the right to live in Germany either, just as they do not have it in Türkiye. We will wipe off the PKK terrorist organization and the FETÖ terrorist organization no matter where they escape in the world."

The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) is an organization that has waged an armed insurgency for nearly four decades and is deemed a "terrorist" group by Türkiye, the US, and the EU.

FETÖ (Fethullahist Terror Organization) is the abbreviation used by the government to name the organization of the Gulenist movement, declared an illegal terrorist organization since May 2016 in Türkiye, and held responsible for the attempted coup of July 15, 2016.

BfV: "Significant threat to liberal, democratic regime"

Deutsche Welle (DW) Turkish reported last week that BfV, the domestic intelligence agency of Germany where the association where the AKP MP gave a speech as a threat to domestic security in a report which argued that in the "Turkish Idealist Movement" (Ülkücü Hareket), violence was seen "as a tool to be used for their purposes."

The report by BfV sees the extreme right as "one of the most significant threats to the liberal, democratic regime in Germany" and includes the "Turkish Idealist Movement" in this scope, cited DW. (AEK/PE)