On the second day of her visit to Turkey, Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock met representatives of the opposition after an open dispute with her counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu. In the capital Ankara, she met with leading politicians from the main opposition party CHP, the pro-Kurdish HDP and the national conservative İyi Parti on Saturday.
On Friday in Istanbul, the joint press conference by Baerbock and Çavuşoğlu turned into an open confrontation about the expected Turkish offensive in northern Syria, the imprisonment of the opposition leader Osman Kavala in Turkey and, above all, about the island dispute between Greece and Turkey.
At the meeting the day after, opposition politician Mithat Sancar praised Baerbock for her clear words in the meeting with her counterpart. “Direct testimony and confrontation are sometimes unavoidable, not just required,” said the HDP co-chair. Çavuşoğlu always speaks a very clear language at such meetings. This is now the first time that his German counterpart has behaved so clearly. “That was fine.”
“Why do you keep coming back with Osman Kavala?”
Before her arrival in Turkey, Baerbock had visited Athens and there clearly sided with Greece in the dispute over Greek islands such as Rhodes, Kos and Lesbos in the eastern Mediterranean. The Turkish government is challenging Athens’ sovereignty over these islands and demanding the withdrawal of all Greek troops. During Baerbock’s visit, Çavuşoğlu accused Germany of taking sides and no longer being a mediator, as Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) had been. During Merkel’s term in office, Germany was “an honest mediator”. “It was balanced. Germany’s policy was balanced,” said Çavuşoğlu. That is no longer the case. Third countries like Germany “should not get involved in provocations and propaganda, especially from Greece and the Greek part of Cyprus.”
The Turkish foreign minister reacted particularly angrily to Baerbock’s criticism of the imprisonment of Turkish cultural promoter Osman Kavala. The Green politician emphasized that judgments by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) must be respected. “For me, this also includes the release of Osman Kavala ordered by the European Court of Human Rights,” she said. “Why do you keep coming back with Osman Kavala?” Çavuşoğlu asked angrily at the press conference, accusing Germany of using Kavala against Turkey and financing it. Kavala was sentenced to life in prison in April in connection with the 2013 Gezi protests. He has been in prison since 2017.
The two also clashed on the subject of Syria. Baerbock warned Çavuşoğlu of a new offensive in the neighboring country. Ankara wants to fight there the Kurdish militia YPG, which the government regards as a terrorist organization. Çavuşoğlu said it was a fight against terror and not a military operation.
“In this regime one cannot speak of an independent judiciary”
Opposition politician Sancar called for consequences from the international community in the event of a Turkish military offensive in northern Syria. “Breach of international law must not remain without consequences.” Sancar expressed skepticism about Turkish mediation between Ukraine and Russia. The Turkish government is “in the case of Ukraine-Russia a dove of peace, here in the region a hawk, a war hawk,” he said. When asked about a ban on his party because of separatism, Sancar said he expected a ban before the parliamentary and presidential elections in June 2023 because he did not believe in a fair process. “In this regime you cannot talk about an independent judiciary. The decision will not be made in the courtroom, but in the presidential palace,” he said. The government accuses the party of being an extension of the PKK. The HDP rejects this.