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Berlin: Cool Reception For Erdogan In Berlin

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  • Berlin: Cool Reception For Erdogan In Berlin

    COOL RECEPTION FOR ERDOGAN IN BERLIN

    Die Welt
    Oct 30 2012
    Germany

    The Alawites in Germany will stand by a promise they made earlier:
    "As soon as Tayyip Erdogan sets his foot on German soil again,
    we will be there to protest," Ali Dogan, Secretary General of the
    Alawite Community in Germany, said. "We will no longer tolerate that
    Europe regards this brute as a democrat."

    This is the promise that Dogan had given 50,000 people with Turkish
    roots in March. At the time, the Alawites protested against Erdogan
    together with Kurds, Armenians, and Turkish social democrats in
    Bochum. The protests then were provoked by the announcement that
    Erdogan was intended to be the recipient of the Steiger Award,
    honouring humanity and tolerance. Just as then, Dogan is certain
    that Erdogan is a "flawless anti-democrat." Erdogan and his party
    violate human rights and cover up the organizers and perpetrators of
    the massacre of Alawites in Sivas in 1993. Dogan explained: "People
    of different faiths and critical journalists are victimized and held
    in arbitrary detention in Turkey." [passage omitted]

    Erdogan likes to use his trips to Germany for election campaign
    purposes. In a speech given in 2008, he told 20,000 compatriots taking
    part in an event in Cologne that assimilation was "a crime against
    humanity." It now seems to be time again for thousands of Alawites
    to give vent to their anger. Erdogan will come to Berlin to attend
    the opening of the Turkish Embassy, the largest representation Turkey
    has abroad. On Wednesday [ 31 October], Angela Merkel will have lunch
    with the Turkish prime minister in the Chancellery. They will discuss
    the crisis in Syria and the EU accession process of Turkey in several
    one-on-one meetings.

    It is expected that tens of thousands of people will join the protests
    during Erdogan's visit. Basically, the Alawites have three demands:
    no war against Syria and no arms deliveries to jihadist troops
    from Turkey, freedom for all political prisoners, many of whom are
    on hunger strike in Turkey, and equal rights for all ethnic and
    religious minorities in Turkey. "It is unacceptable that Turkey goes
    on suppressing minorities," Ali Dogan said.

    Merkel and Erdogan will also speak about the conflict with the Kurds.

    In September, Erdogan lashed out against the German authorities,
    claiming that they fail to do enough against the Workers Party of
    Kurdistan (PKK), which collects protection money and recruits new
    supporters in Germany. He made the allegation that Germany did not
    want Turkey to resolve the Kurdish conflict. [passage omitted]

    [Translated from German]


    From: Baghdasarian
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