Turkey plotting 'action plan' against Germany
Angered by a resolution passed on the Armenian genocide in the German parliament last week, Turkey has let it be known it is planning its response.
"The relevant authorities, most prominently the Foreign Ministry, are building an action plan," said Ibrahim Kalin, spokesperson for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Wednesday, the Süddeutsche Zeitung reports.
When the plan has been completed, it will be presented to the president and prime minister, and only then will details as to its content be revealed, Kalin said.
Turkey was left outraged last week after the Bundestag (German parliament) passed a resolution recognizing the deaths of over 1 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire in 1915-16 as genocide.
In the German vote, only one parliamentarian rejected the resolution, while one other abstained. Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier did not attend the vote.
In a further sign of how the resolution has created hostility in Turkey, one newspaper described a terror attack which left 11 dead in Istanbul earlier in the week as a "German achievement" in its front page headline on Wednesday, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports.
According to the newspaper Günes, Germany couldn't deal with Turkey’s tough reaction after the genocide resolution was passed, and so "panicked and fell back into old habits. It allowed the terror cells which it uses as puppets to carry out a bloody attack."
Western historical consensus is that the Ottoman government systematically massacred an estimated 1.5 million Armenians beginning in 1915 in a campaign to wipe them from Anatolia.
But Turkey insists similar numbers of Muslims and Armenians were killed during wartime conflict sparked when Armenians joined forces with invading Russian troops in the hope of carving out their own state.
Ankara repeatedly warned Germany of the consequences the resolution could have for diplomatic relations in the build up to the vote, saying that it could impact the "friendship" between the two countries.
After the vote was passed, Erdogan accused lawmakers in Berlin who have a Turkish background of being the long arm of terrorist organizations fighting the Turkish state.
In the Bundestag on Thursday, MPs will discuss the comments Erdogan made about MPs with a Turkish background. The debate was called by the Left Party.
With AFP
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"The relevant authorities, most prominently the Foreign Ministry, are building an action plan," said Ibrahim Kalin, spokesperson for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Wednesday, the Süddeutsche Zeitung reports.
When the plan has been completed, it will be presented to the president and prime minister, and only then will details as to its content be revealed, Kalin said.
Turkey was left outraged last week after the Bundestag (German parliament) passed a resolution recognizing the deaths of over 1 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire in 1915-16 as genocide.
In the German vote, only one parliamentarian rejected the resolution, while one other abstained. Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier did not attend the vote.
In a further sign of how the resolution has created hostility in Turkey, one newspaper described a terror attack which left 11 dead in Istanbul earlier in the week as a "German achievement" in its front page headline on Wednesday, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports.
According to the newspaper Günes, Germany couldn't deal with Turkey’s tough reaction after the genocide resolution was passed, and so "panicked and fell back into old habits. It allowed the terror cells which it uses as puppets to carry out a bloody attack."
Western historical consensus is that the Ottoman government systematically massacred an estimated 1.5 million Armenians beginning in 1915 in a campaign to wipe them from Anatolia.
But Turkey insists similar numbers of Muslims and Armenians were killed during wartime conflict sparked when Armenians joined forces with invading Russian troops in the hope of carving out their own state.
Ankara repeatedly warned Germany of the consequences the resolution could have for diplomatic relations in the build up to the vote, saying that it could impact the "friendship" between the two countries.
After the vote was passed, Erdogan accused lawmakers in Berlin who have a Turkish background of being the long arm of terrorist organizations fighting the Turkish state.
In the Bundestag on Thursday, MPs will discuss the comments Erdogan made about MPs with a Turkish background. The debate was called by the Left Party.
With AFP
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