Turkey summons German envoy over satirical Erdogan video
Ankara has summoned Berlin’s ambassador to Turkey over a satirical music video in German lampooning Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Martin Erdmann was summoned to the foreign ministry in the Turkish capital last week to answer questions about contents of the short video clip made by popular satirical television show, Extra 3.
"We summoned the ambassador last week to communicate our protest about the broadcast that we condemned,” a Turkish diplomat was quoted by AFP as saying on Tuesday. “We demanded that the program be deleted.”
“Erdowi, Erdowo, Erdoğan,” which censures the Turkish president’s media crackdown, his attacking of Kurdish groups, and his demands on the EU in relation to the refugee crisis, was aired by the German TV channel NDR on March 17.
Extra 3 has so far refrained from deleting the video and instead has built up a huge amount of interest for it over twitter and Facebook by including English subtitles.
Earlier in the day, the program posted a picture of Erdogan on its twitter feed and named him "Employee of the Month."
Erdmann has been engaged in repeated talks over the song with the Turkish Foreign Ministry, according to German diplomatic sources.
"In these talks he made clear that the rule of law, judicial independence and the protection of fundamental freedoms, including of the press and of expression, are valuable assets that should be jointly protected," said the source.
Erdmann has also stressed that “in Germany, political satire is covered by the freedom of the press and of expression and the government has neither the need for, nor the option of, taking action."
NDR editor-in-chief, Andreas Cichowicz, says the video has not been removed because Ankara’s protests are "not consistent with our understanding of freedom of the press and freedom of speech."
The government in Ankara faces widespread condemnation over its gagging of critical media outlets as well as MPs, scholars, lawyers and NGOs.
It is also under fire for its military crackdown on the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which it deems as a terrorist organization.
Germany sees Turkey as the EU’s main resource in tackling the influx of asylum seekers arriving on European borders as most of them gain entry via the Turkish waters. Istanbul has offered to stem the number of refugees passing through its borders on the condition of a hefty amount of financial support.
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