For years, many big cities in Germany have been involved in sister city projects with cities in Turkey. With the Erdoğan regime holding German citizens hostage and Turkish government officials issuing threats and insults to Germany, the sister city projects have suffered greatly.

Administrations in cities of Dortmund, Duisburg, Oberhausen and Hamm had previously announced that they stopped joint projects with partner city municipalities in Turkey. The municipalities in question were all held by the AKP.

Now Hannover, the capital of Lower Saxony, has been added to the list. Lower Saxony Prime Minister Stephan Weil stated that the sister city protocol they signed with Konya in 2014 no longer has any meaning.

“IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO WORK TOGETHER WITH KONYA ANYMORE”

Social Democratic politician Weil stated that it is no longer possible to work together with Konya and added: “Political developments show that this issue won’t be resolved in the near future.” Stephan Weil also pointed out that they are following the political events in Turkey closely and that the events also affect the Turkish-German immigrants in their state.

In 2014, agreements had been signed with the Konya Governorate, ushered by none other than the Lower Saxony Prime Minister Stephan Weil, that arranged for joint efforts in the areas of economy, research and education. The mayors of Konya and Hannover had also signed a sister city protocol. But it is now reported that cooperation between the two cities is not possible anymore, and the agreements have been shelved.

NO MORE COOPERATION WITH AKP MUNICIPALITIES

Last month, the city administration of Dortmund had announced that their relationship with sister city Trabzon was over. A similar statement had come from the city administration of Duisburg, sister city of Antep, as well. The city administration of Oberhausen had also announced an end to their joint projects with Mersin metropolitan municipality, and the city council of Hamm ended all joint projects with Afyonkarahisar.