ANKARA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday compared anti-Turkey statements by German politicians to “Nazism” after Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would seek to end talks on Ankara’s accession to the EU.
“I’m not saying you’re a Nazi, a fascist. I am explaining the incident... This incident is Nazism. This is fascism,” Erdogan said, reacting to comments made by Merkel and Martin Schulz, her Social Democratic rival, during a televised debate ahead of elections on Sept. 24.
“You have entered into the election campaign in a competition for this title,” he told local ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) officials in Ankara.
Meanwhile, Germany has issued a travel advisory warning its citizens visiting Turkey about the risk of arbitrary detention even at tourism destinations. The move might affect the flow of German tourists to Turkey, which has already been undermined by terrorist attacks in major cities over recent years, including assaults on German tourists in Istanbul’s historical sites.
The reason behind Berlin’s advisory is the detention of two German citizens at Antalya airport last week.
Germany, which once made up the largest group of visitors to Turkey, has posted a 20 percent decline this year compared to 2016.
“I tell Merkel: If you cannot tolerate the EU’s relationship with Turkey, bravely say it and do what’s necessary!” Erdogan said.
He repeated his call for ethnic Turks in Germany not to “give your vote to Turkey enemies,” which last month infuriated German politicians.
Erdogan called the EU’s stance toward Ankara’s accession bid “hypocrisy and political immorality,” and urged Brussels to make a clear decision “at once” on the process.
“We didn’t have any problem with the EU. You’ve kept Turkey waiting. Turkey has complied with all its commitments. It’s the EU that should take a step. They must either keep their word ... or come out and say ‘we don’t want to continue on this path’.”
Erdogan insisted that Turkey had not moved away from its “strategic goal of EU membership” and was fulfilling its duties.
Erdogan compares anti-Turkey statements by Germany to ‘Nazism’
Erdogan compares anti-Turkey statements by Germany to ‘Nazism’
Landmine explosion in Sudan kills 9, including 3 children
- “Nine people, three of them children, were killed by a mine explosion while they were in a tuk-tuk,” a medical source at Al-Abbasiya hospital said
KHARTOUM: A land mine explosion killed nine people in Sudan on Sunday, including three children, as they were riding in an auto-rickshaw along a road in the frontline region of Kordofan, a medical source told AFP.
The war between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which began in April 2023, has left Sudan strewn with mines and unexploded ordnance, though the explosive that caused Sunday’s deaths could also have dated back to previous rebellions that have shaken South Kordofan state since 2011.
“Nine people, three of them children, were killed by a mine explosion while they were in a tuk-tuk,” a medical source at Al-Abbasiya hospital said.
The vehicle was reduced to “a metal carcass,” witness Abdelbagi Issa told AFP by phone.
“We were walking behind the tuk-tuk along the road to the market when we heard the sound of an explosion,” he said. “People fell to the ground and the tuk-tuk was destroyed.”
Kordofan has become the center of fighting in the nearly three-year war ever since the RSF forced the army out of its last foothold in the neighboring Darfur region late last year.
Since it broke out, Sudan’s civil war has killed tens of thousands of people and forced 11 million to flee their homes, triggering a dire humanitarian crisis.
It has also effectively split the country in two, with the army holding the north, center and east while the RSF and its allies control the west and parts of the south.
