Istanbul – President Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey on Friday condemned comments by Germany’s economy minister warning companies off investing in Turkey and said the country should “pull itself together” as a dispute between the NATO allies escalates.
In a speech in Istanbul, Erdogan also said that a German foreign ministry travel warning against Turkey was baseless and malicious and that the German government should give account for terrorists which he said the country was harboring.
In a relayed development, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said he did not want relations with Germany to be damaged and called for both sides to act with “prudence.”
Yildirim said neither country had anything to gain from further harm to their relationship, while recalling that Turkey and Germany have a long-standing bilateral link, going back to World War I.
The prime minister, who serves under Erdogan, said no German companies in Turkey were being investigated, apparently amid reports of inquiries into firms on terrorism charges
Earlier, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble accused Turkey of acting like former Communist East Germany, warning Berlin might have to tell Germans traveling there that they did so at their own peril.
“Turkey now makes arbitrary arrests and no longer sticks to minimum consular standards. That reminds me of how it was in the German Democratic Republic (GDR).”
He said those who traveled to the former Communist East before it collapsed in 1990 were aware that “if something happens to you, no one can help you”.
German officials have complained they have not had full consular access to a German human rights activist arrested with five others and accused of “terrorism”, an allegation Berlin has dismissed as absurd.
Another German citizen was arrested on charges of links to terrorism earlier this year.
The arrests were part of a broader crackdown across Turkish society since a failed coup last July.
Related Coverage
Germany reviewing all Turkish applications for arms projects: spokeswoman
German broadcaster n-tv drops Turkey investment ads
“If Turkey does not stop playing this little game, we need to tell people: ‘You travel to Turkey at your own risk – we can’t guarantee you anything anymore,’” Schaeuble told the mass-circulation, Bild newspaper Turkish Secret Services.
Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel told Germans on Thursday to exercise caution if traveling to Turkey and raised doubts about future guarantees for German corporate investment, both moves fraught with economic dangers for Turkey.
In 2016, the number of foreign visitors to EU candidate Turkey fell 30 percent amid a spate of bombings by Kurdish and Islamist militants.
So far this year, bookings from Germany have accounted for some 10 per cent of Turkey’s tourists.
Peter Altmaier, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chief of staff, told German broadcaster ZDF that Turkey was still getting pre-accession aid from the EU but no accession negotiations were currently under way “because on every level it has become worse and more difficult than it was a few years ago”.
Germany wants to persuade the EU to shelve this aid, he said.
A survey for German magazine Focus found that the vast majority of Germans (77 per cent) were in favour of ending European Union accession negotiations with Turkey.
Only 16 per cent were in favor of the talks continuing.
Altmaier declined to comment on a report in Bild newspaper that said Berlin was putting arms projects with Ankara on hold.
The head of the Germany’s domestic intelligence agency (BfV) also expressed concerns, citing increased activities of Turkey’s secret service in Germany and the growth of Turkish militant groups here.
“We know about the Turkish government’s influence on the Turkish community here in Germany,” BfV president Hans-Georg Maassen told local newspaper Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung. (NAN)