Turkish President Erdogan is trying to spread his view of the Middle East war in Germany with the help of influential officials. You can reach many people of Turkish origin in this country.
Tuğrul Selmanoğlu lives in Germany and is an influential official of the UID, the Union of International Democrats based in Cologne. He met the Turkish president several times and proudly posted a photo of Erdogan and himself on social media.
“Today, not tomorrow! Today all Muslim countries must come together, put aside all disputes, all worldly concerns and carry out a military operation,” he said about the Middle East war in an Internet talk show hosted by the AKP-affiliated Turkish YouTuber Abdurrahman Uzun. This sets the big line. The Muslim world against Israel and thus against the West.
Club in focus defense of Constitution
The UID, based in Cologne, plays an important role in the mobilization of people of Turkish origin in Germany. The political scientist and migration researcher Burak Copur knows the association well: “UID is ultimately also a propaganda center that is clearly committed to mobilizing AKP voters and represents Erdogan’s political interests here in Germany.”
The UID has already become the focus of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Copur emphasizes: “The UID is being monitored by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution because its goals are not compatible with Germany’s free, democratic basic order.”
Erdogan sees Hamas as “Liberation Group”
Erdogan’s influence in Germany can also be seen at pro-Palestine demonstrations – Turkish flags are always flying here. Erdogan is a “mediator between the warring parties” and a “guarantor of peace in the region,” said people with a Turkish immigrant background at a demonstration in Cologne a few weeks ago.
But what the Turkish president is saying to Israel doesn’t sound like a peacemaker at all. After initial reluctance, he has now adopted a clear anti-Israel and anti-Western tone. Hamas is not a terrorist organization, but a liberation group, he said at a rally in Istanbul with hundreds of thousands of participants. He threatens to end Israel.
The State of Israel as a “Monster”
Back to the Union of International Democrats, Erdogan’s mouthpiece in Germany. Tuğrul Selmanoğlu, also an official at the UID, condemned the ARD Initially the terrorist attacks by Hamas, but then he says: “If someone has lost their mother or father to this state terror, then they just go crazy and act crazy because their whole life is traumatized by this conflict. If you have been with it for a long time If you fight a monster, you become a monster yourself!”
The state of Israel as a “monster” – this opinion apparently also resonates with parts of the Turkish community in Germany: “Hamas is not a terrorist. No. Israel is a terrorist,” said a man of Turkish origin in an interview in Cologne-Mülheim, for example ARD-Reporter.
What is said on the street is what UID officials like Adem Taflan post on X (formerly Twitter). “The Turkish government’s influence on its own citizens abroad is great,” says Hüseyin Çiçek, political scientist and Erdogan expert at the University of Bonn. “This is because the AKP has taken the Turks abroad very seriously since it came to power. And when conflicts such as those currently dominate the geopolitical situation, Erdogan uses these different platforms to get his message across to the population. “
A counterpoint to the Western world
Tuğrul Selmanoğlu, one of Erdogan’s influencers in Germany, implores the unity of all Muslims to his followers and even tries to convince people to fight against Israel. The Erdogan lobbyist attaches particular importance to Turkey and its president: “There may not be a new Ottoman Empire, but there will be a successor. Because there has been no counterpoint to the West since the fall of the Soviet Union. And in the long term there will be a counterpoint to this West, to capitalism.”
Political scientist Çiçek observes how Erdogan is trying to forge new alliances and find allies: “President Erdogan wants to present himself as the mouthpiece of the Umma, the Muslim believers.”
A new caliphate with Erdogan as leader?
A tweet on platform So a theocracy? He asserts in ARD-Interview, it should not become a new fundamentalist Islamic state, but rather a union of Islamic countries, an alternative to the EU.
A union that could now go to war against Israel: “Together, the Muslim countries have an army that is 17 million strong, with Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, with a very strong air force like Turkey’s, with a very strong navy like that of Egypt. Yes, there are 17 million soldiers, but there are no leaders, there is no caliph, there is no diplomatic institution that can lead it.”
When asked who that leader could be, he replied: “Of course that would be the one that comes to everyone’s mind.” The reporter asks whether he means President Erdogan. “You say so,” Selmanoğlu replies – and laughs. And Erdogan can also be happy that officials of the UID, an association registered in Germany and operating from Cologne, are allowed to rave so uninhibitedly about a caliphate and incite Israel.