MAINZ, Germany – Thousands have rallied against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to the German city of Karlsruhe, where police said Kurdish protesters had clashed with the president‘s Turkish supporters.
Demonstrators gathered to protest Erdogan’s speech hours before he arrived. German police said that Kurdish protesters clashed with Turkish supporters of the AKP, Turkey’s ruling party to which Erdogan belonged before becoming president.
Several members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) or its affiliates clashed with Turks who had been waiting for Erdogan’s arrival before being separated by police, witnesses said.
“We are here to show our condemnation of the Turkish state and Mr. Erdogan’s policy,“ said Agir Genc, a Kurdish demonstrator. “Kurdish rights have to be acknowledged in Northern Kurdistan (in Turkey),” he said.
About 14.000 people waited to hear the Turkish president, who has been on the trail ahead of the important June 7 parliament elections, although he must remain neutral and not favor any party according to the Turkish constitution.
Turkey’s government has been in a peace process with the PKK that has been all but stalled by the government. Erdogan has angered Turkey’s huge Kurdish population by denying the existence of a “Kurdish problem“ in Turkey.
“Erdogan’s policies are not in favor of the Kurds,“ said Dilan Izolan, a Kurdish activist from Turkey. “He sends some washing machines and tries to get Kurdish votes, but in the same breath he forgets to get electricity to Kurdish villages. We want the Turkish state to give the Kurds their deeply-needed autonomy.”
In his speech to supporters gathered to hear him in Karlsruhe, Erdogan said: “(You) are our power outside the country. For us you are no migrant workers, you are our strength in foreign countries.”
Germany hosts a large number of migrant workers and ethnic Turks. Their votes are hugely important to the AKP, which has been backing a bid by Erdogan to change the constitution and accumulate greater power.
Erdogan told supporters at Karlsruhe that a “new Turkey” needs the presidential system to which he aspires.
The pro-Kurdish HDP party, which is fighting for at least the 10 percent of votes required to win a seat in parliament, has vowed not to let Erdogan realize his ambition of changing Turkey’s ruling system into a presidential one.
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