Erdogan Tells Turks in Germany to Vote Against Merkel

While the Democrats want to make a huge issue out of Russia hacking their files and releasing evidence that they were truly corrupt and how Clinton was just a liar blaming Russia rather than themselves, interference in the elections of other countries is par for the course. I have reported how Obama has interfered in Canada, Britain, and France. This is standard operational procedure. Now Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan publicly told all Turks living in Germany to vote against Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats on September 24th.

For Erdogan to publicly try to influence the German elections as Obama did in Britain tell them to get to the  ‘back of queue‘ if they voted for BREXIT, demonstrates the lack of unity between the NATO allies and major trade partners.

Ties between Ankara and Berlin have been strained in the aftermath of last year’s failed coup as Turkish authorities have sacked or suspended 150,000 people and detained more than 50,000 people, including German nationals. Erdogan’s response has been to Merkel’s voiced concern that he has used the coup as a pretext to quash dissent in Turkey. Erdogan has adopted a clear authoritarian role for himself trying to tie it to the roots in political Islam. Erdogan has accused Merkel of being anti-Turkish and anti-Muslim. He pronounced:

“I am calling on all my countrymen in Germany: the Christian Democrats, SDP, the Green Party are all enemies of Turkey. Support those political parties who are not enemies of Turkey,” 

“I call on them not to vote for those parties who have been engaged in such aggressive, disrespectful attitudes against Turkey, and I invite them to teach a lesson to those political parties at the ballot box.” 

The tensions between Germany and Turkey are on a crash course between 2018 and 2020.