When German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock met with officials of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and the Republican People’s Party (CHP) on Saturday after her meeting with her Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu the day before, the Turkish opposition praised her for her clear words to him, according to reports in the German media.
Baerbock criticised Turkey’s potential incursion into northern Syria in the meeting with Çavuşoğlu on Friday, saying that Turkey’s new operation will lead to more suffering in the region, and “it will be terror organisations who will exploit such a military conflict to gain a foothold again.”
“It is the first time that a member of the German government has expressed herself so clearly, said HDP co-chair Sancar,” reported German media outlete Tagesschau, adding:
“Mithat Sancar praised Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock for her clear words at the meeting with her counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu. ‘Direct statements and confrontation are sometimes not merely requisite but also unavoidable,’ said the co-chair of the pro-Kurdish party HDP after talks with Baerbock in Ankara. ‘Çavusoğlu always uses very clear language at such meetings. This is now the first time that his German counterpart has also been so clear,’ said Sancar.”
Sancar said in the meeting with Baerbock that the court case demanding the closure of the HDP, the ongoing military campaign in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the renewed threats of a fresh Turkish incursion into north and east Syria are all related to a deadlock in the Kurdish question, according to an official report by the HDP.
He also noted that the pretexts given by the Turkish administration in the context of a fresh military campaign in northern Syria did not reflect the actual situation on the ground, and that the administration is engaged in attempts to make up substantial losses it has been suffering in voter support.
