Turkey summons German envoy over Cologne rally

Istanbul / AFP

Turkey summoned a senior German diplomat on Monday, a day after a rally in Cologne in support of the Turkish president who was not permitted to address the crowd by video link.
The coup aimed to unseat President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who has since launched a sweeping nationwide purge of suspected Gulen supporters, dismissing tens of thousands from their jobs and detaining almost 19,000 people.
The crackdown has sparked international alarm, with Prime Minister Binali Yildirim admitting there may have been some unfair treatment in the dismissals.
“There must definitely be some among them who were subjected to unfair procedures,” he said in comments published by state-run Anadolu news agency on Monday. “We will make a distinction between those who are guilty and those who are not.”

German rally
In Germany, home to Turkey’s largest diaspora, tens of thousands of Erdogan supporters rallied in Cologne on Sunday to demonstrate their opposition to the coup in an event held under tight security. Hours before the demonstration, Germany’s constitutional court rejected an application to show via video link live speeches from Turkey by politicians including Erdogan, over fears they could work up the crowd.
The decision sparked anger in Turkey, with presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin calling the move unacceptable and a “violation of the freedom of expression and the right to free assembly”. A spokeswoman for the German embassy said that the charge d’affaires had “been summoned to the Turkish foreign ministry at 1:00 pm (1000 GMT)” on Monday over the rally.
But Berlin played down the incident, saying such “invitations” were nothing out of the ordinary. “In the day-to-day dealings between countries, it is a daily event—normal for a representative of a country to be called in to the foreign ministry of his host country,” German foreign ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer told journalists.
The tension comes as ties between Germany and Turkey were already strained over the German parliament’s decision to brand as genocide the World War I-era Armenian massacre by Ottoman forces. Also on Monday, General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, was to meet with Yildirim and Turkish chief of staff General Hulusi Akar.

Turkey, US meet after power grab attempt 

Istanbul / AFP

Turkey’s military and political leaders were to meet on Monday in Ankara with the top US military commander in the first direct talks since last month’s failed coup. General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, will meet with Turkish chief of staff General Hulusi Akar and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim in the Turkish capital. Tensions between the two NATO allies have been aggravated by the foiled July 15 putsch by rogue elements in the military who sought to bring down the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
And some Turkish officials have even alleged that Washington could have had a hand in the plot, although the suggestion has been firmly denied by top US officials. Turkey successfully thwarted the attempted coup, blaming it on a military faction loyal to Erdogan’s arch-foe Fethullah Gulen, a US-based cleric who has been in self-imposed exile in the United States for years.