BERLIN: Germany expressed its “dismay” to the Turkish ambassador in Berlin this week over disparaging remarks Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan made about a German opposition leader, a diplomatic source said on Friday.

Amid heightened tensions between Ankara and Berlin, Erdogan complained to deputies from his AKP party on Tuesday that a leader of the German Greens party of Turkish origin, Cem Ozdemir, had said “very ugly things” about him.

Erdogan called Ozdemir a “so-called Turk” and indicated he was no longer welcome in Turkey after critical comments he made about a rally the premier held in the western German city of Cologne last week, according to a transcript.

“Particularly due to your origins, you have no right to talk this way about the prime minister of a country you belong to,” Erdogan said, referring to Ozdemir.

Ozdemir had warned Erdogan before the event in Cologne that he should not bring internal disputes to Germany, in a reference to bloody strife in Turkey.

The source said Turkey’s envoy, Huseyin Avni Karslioglu, had been “invited “to the German foreign ministry two days ago “to express our dismay about comments by the Turkish government”.

“This type of public criticism of an important German politician, who has always worked in the interest of good relations between Germany and Turkey — also in the run-up to Prime Minister Erdogan’s visit — is unhelpful for the German-Turkish relationship,” the source said.

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2014