Cancellation of Erdogan’s official visit

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) welcomes the position of the German Federal Government that – in connection with a possible official visit of Turkish ruler Recep Tayyip Erdogan – it is necessary to address the topic of agitation and hate speech by AKP representatives in Germany. “However, this will not be enough. At the latest since the Bundestag recognized the genocide crimes against the Yazidi people, the German Federal Government should rethink its position on Erdogan. After all, the genocide partly took place because of Erdogan’s hate speech,” stated Dr. Kamal Sido, the STP’s Middle East Expert. “If a politician of Erdogan’s AKP party demands the ‘destruction’ of followers of the banned Turkish worker’s party PKK and the Gülen movement – during a speech in a mosque in Neuss – we have to expect more violence against members of minority groups. Germany must not let this go without a comment.”

Erdogan had already publicly agitated against the Yazidi people of Afrin in the north-west of Syria one year before the so-called “Islamic State” (IS) attacked the Yazidi people in the Sinjar region in the north-west of Iraq. There, the murderous campaign of the terrorist organization began. “Back then, the IS and other Syrian Islamists attacked Yazidi villages such as Qestel Cindo on the outskirts of Afrin. Whoever refused to convert to Islam was supposed to die,” Sido recalled. “The Turkish press and other Muslim media, such as the Qatari TV station Al Jazeera, brought Erdogan’s hate speech to the entire ‘Muslim world’ – in many different languages.” Apparently, Erdogan was irritated by the important role the Yazidis and the Alevi minority – especially the women – played in the autonomous administration of Afrin.

“As he preaches hate and violence, Erdogan should never be allowed to promote his inhumane ideology of nationalism and Islamism in the rest of Europe,” Sido emphasized. “Erdogan’s supporters in the field of German politics must finally realize that he is jeopardizing peaceful coexistence in this country. Further, this is a threat to the small Christian and Yazidi minorities in Turkey. The German ‘traffic-light’ coalition must learn from the mistakes of the Merkel era. This policy cannot be tolerated.”