Germany slams Erdogan comments on Armenia 'genocide' vote

Berlin has lashed out at Turkish President Recep Tayyib Erdogan over his comments about German lawmakers with Turkish origin who had voted in favor of the recognition of Ottoman Empire's massacre of Armenians.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman said Monday that Erdogan’s comments which associated individual members of parliament with terrorism were “utterly incomprehensible.”

Steffen Seiber was reacting to Erdogan’s condemnation a day earlier of German parliament’s recent vote on the World War I massacre, in which he said that the 11 German MPs with Turkish roots who backed the decision were supporters of “terrorism” by the banned Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK).

Seibert said Berlin considers the PKK a terrorist group, but Erdogan should respect the resolution by the Bundestag, a body he described as “democratically-elected,” and an “independent organ under our constitution,” saying the body passed the resolution as a pure “political initiative.”

“The Bundestag reached a sovereign decision. That must be respected,” Seibert said, reiterating that Erdogan’s comments about the lawmakers came despite a message by Merkel to the Turkish president about the independent nature of the Bundestag.

Other German officials also criticized Erdogan’s comments, with Integration Minister Ozoguz labeling the terrorism claim “incredible” and saying that it “represents a severe test for German-Turkish relations.”

Ozoguz also reacted to Erdogan’s singling out of German Greens party co-leader, Cem Ozdemir, one of the initiators of the resolution, saying the comments have been followed by shocking death threats against Ozdemir.

“I expect that parliament will now clearly express its solidarity with us and will not leave us alone in this,” Ozoguz said, adding that “the death threats against us, members of the German Bundestag, are absolutely unacceptable and deeply shock me.”

Others deplored Erdogan’s call on German MPs of Turkish origin to undergo “blood tests” in order to see “what kind of Turks they are,” with Gokay Sofuoglu, the chairman of the Turkish community in Germany, rapping Erdogan for the pressure his government and its supporters had placed on German lawmakers.

"We find death threats and demands for blood tests abhorrent,” he said, adding, “I think the era when people were defined by their blood ended in 1945. This is absolutely out of place.”

The Bundestag voted last week to recognize the 1915-1916 killings by the Ottoman Empire of the Armenians as genocide. 

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