Germany: we reserve the right to bar Turkish campaigners
BERLIN — Germany’s government reserves the right to impose entry bans on Turkish officials hoping to campaign in the country, though the measure would be a “last resort,” Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chief of staff said Wednesday.
Peter Altmaier’s comments followed days of escalating tensions between Turkey and two European Union nations, Germany and the Netherlands, over Turkish politicians’ hopes to campaign there ahead of their country’s constitutional referendum next month.
At the European Parliament, EU leaders voiced solidarity with the Netherlands and condemned Nazi parallels drawn by Turkish officials.
But Turkey’s president lashed out again at the Dutch — repeating an assertion that they were responsible for the slaughter of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995 and saying that “they have nothing to do with the civilized world; they have nothing to do with the modern world.”