Turkish President Erdoğan will be visiting Hamburg for the G-20 Summit to be held on July 7-8. AKP members are looking left and right for a large venue or a stadium so he can hold rallies with his supporters.

Venue owners in several cities, including Dortmund, Oberhausen, Cologne and Gelsenkirche, have rejected the requests.

Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) Chairperson Martin Schulz spoke to the daily Bild newspaper in Germany and asked Erdoğan be prevented from holding mass gatherings outside of the G-20 summit for his supporters.

“A PLATFORM SHOULDN’T BE PROVIDED FOR ONE WHO TRAMPLES OUR VALUES”

Schulz is the strongest candidate against the Christian democratic politician and current Chancellor Angela Merkel in the Federal Parliament elections to be held this September. He wants Erdoğan’s rallies to be officially banned, and said the following:

“A platform shouldn’t be provided for foreign politicians who trample our values in their countries. I don’t want Erdoğan, who imprisons the opposition and the journalists in Turkey, to be holding large scale events in Germany.

It’s not an issue of fire prevention systems in the venues or the number of parks. It’s Erdoğan wanting to transfer the political fights he seeks in Turkey to Germany. The fundamental question here is: Do we want to listen to these skirmishes of Mr. Erdoğan, or not?”

Several venues, including the Arena in Cologne, rejected appeals from the AKP members saying they had no space for Erdoğan.

Martin Schulz had been subjected to Erdoğan’s insults for condemning the arrest of HDP Co-chairs last year when he was the President of the European Parliament. 

Erdoğan gave his last speech in Germany as the president in May 2015 in Karlsruhe. In a rally held in Cologne in July 2016, Erdoğan wasn’t allowed to connect to an AKP rally in Cologne via video. When Germany didn’t permit AKP rallies before the April 16 election, Erdoğan likened the German administration to the Nazi regime and insulted many people.