Author Deniz Utlu: ′Erdogan′s Call for a Blood Test Is Simply Lunacy′
This is where populist tribal nationalism leads Trump fans. Our ancestors came to America to leave Balkanization by ethnicity, religion, or country behind.
German-Turkish relations have been strained since the beginning of June, when the Bundestag (German Parliament) passed a resolution declaring the extermination of up to 1.5 million Armenians in 1915 by the Osman Empire during World War I to be genocide. The Turkish government responded with severe recriminations against Germany. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused German parliamentarians of Turkish heritage of aiding and abetting the PKK, an outlawed Kurdish labor party. He also expressed doubt about the true ethnicity of Bundestag representatives with Turkish roots and suggested that they take a blood test. Senior German politicians heavily protested in turn. Germans with Turkish roots active on the arts scene have, in contrast, been notably quiet in recent days. One of them however, author Deniz Utlu, is outspoken in this DW interview.
DW: Mr. Utlu, what is your view on the fact that President Erdogan has described German politicians as an extension of the PKK, thus seeking to silence critical voices in Germany?
Deniz Utlu: Unfortunately, this kind of denunciation has a history. There’s nothing new about that strategy, at least not on the national level in Turkey. How many journalists, authors and persons engaged in the cultural sector there have been sent to jail under the pretence that they’d supported Ergenekon, the PKK or some other outlawed entity? If Erdogan is employing this kind of rhetoric against German political figures now, they’re only getting a taste of what so many democratic forces in Turkey have long had to contend with. Most recently, the government has succeeded in making Turkish parliamentarians vulnerable by revoking their immunity.
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