ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defiantly stepped into Germany’s election campaign on Friday, calling on ethnic Turks not to vote next month for the two parties in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling coalition.

Erdogan said ethnic Turks in Germany should not cast their ballots for Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the Social Democratic Party (SPD) of Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel or the Greens, as they were “enemies of Turkey”.

In a new row set to further escalate an already intensifying crisis, Gabriel immediately slammed Erdogan’s comments as an “unprecedented act of interference” in the sovereignty of Germany.

“I tell all my kinsmen in Germany... not to vote for them. Neither the Christian Democrats nor the SPD nor the Greens. They are all enemies of Turkey,” the Turkish president told reporters in Istanbul in televised comments.

He accused the SPD and CDU in the election campaign of playing a game of “the more you beat up Turkey, the more votes you get”.

“You need to support political parties there now which do not display enmity to Turkey,” he said.

Erdogan did not make it clear which German political party he would like people to support in the polls for the Bundestag on September 24. But he said he expected Turkish origin voters to “teach a lesson to the parties which are disrespectful to Turkey” when they cast their votes in a “struggle for honour”.

Tensions have spiralled in recent months between Germany and Turkey, in one of the most significant crises in years between two Nato allies with longstanding historical links.

Germany has lambasted Turkey over the magnitude of the crackdown in the wake of last year’s failed coup which has seen several German citizens arrested, including journalists.

Ankara meanwhile has accused Berlin of meddling in its internal affairs and seeking to torpedo its longstanding bid to join the EU. Turkish German journalist Deniz Yucel, the Istanbul correspondent of the Die Welt daily, has been held in jail in Turkey since February ahead of trial on terror charges.

German journalist Mesale Tolu has meanwhile been held on similar charges since May while activist Peter Steudtner was arrested in a raid in July. According to German foreign ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer, there are 10 Germans, including dual nationals, in custody in Turkey.

Yucel, Tolu and Steudtner should receive consular visits from the ambassador in the coming week, he added.

While Gabriel’s SPD — whose candidate for chancellor is ex-EU parliament speaker Martin Schulz — and Merkel’s CDU are rivals in the election they have been in broad agreement on Turkey policy within the coalition. Meanwhile the opposition Greens have pushed for an even tougher line against Ankara. The Greens’ co-leader is Cem Ozdemir, who is of Turkish origin and has been bitterly critical of Erdogan.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2017