Erdogan: Turkey should put Germany ‘on trial’

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Germany of “aiding and abetting terror” and said the country should be “put on trial” for spying on Turkey, and for aiding and abetting terrorists loyal to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Speaking at the 4th Phoenix Awards ceremony, held by Yesilay (the Turkish Green Crescent Society), Erdogan said, “They [Germany] need to be put on trial for aiding and harbouring terror,” Turkish Daily Sabah reported.

Commenting on a journalist working for German paper Die Welt who was arrested by Turkish authorities, Erdogan said: “This person, as a representative of the PKK, as a German agent, was hidden for a month in the German consulate. When we told them to hand him over to be tried, they refused.”

The president also criticised German authorities for allowing members of the PKK to hold rallies and speak, while preventing Turkish ministers who sought to address the Turkish community on an upcoming and pivotal presidential referendum from speaking at rallies.

Tensions between the two countries escalated last week after German media and politicians sharply criticised Turkey for the pre-trial detention of Die Welt’s Istanbul correspondent Deniz Yucel on charges of disseminating terrorist propaganda.

Yucel’s name first came up last December in an investigation by the Chief Prosecutor’s Office in Istanbul. All suspects in the case were accused of disseminating propaganda for a leftist hacker community known as “RedHack”, which is designated as a terrorist group in Turkey. Five suspects were detained in the case while Yucel, who lives in Germany, eluded detention.

Ankara has long criticised Berlin for being a safe haven for the PKK’s recruitment, propaganda and funding activities.

The far-left Kurdish extremist group had more than 14,000 members and adherents in Germany, according to a 2015 annual report produced by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the BfV.

Although the PKK is banned in Germany, which is home to a large Kurdish community, the terrorist group has been carrying out significant activities through various cultural associations. According to the BfV’s annual report released in June, the PKK raised more than 13 million euros ($14.3 million) in Germany last year.

The group, which is listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US and the EU, is responsible for the deaths of more than 44,000 people in a decades-long campaign against Turkey, and it has recently intensified its terrorist attacks.