After NATO intervened, the Erdoğan regime allowed 7 MPs from the Federal Parliament’s Defense Commission to visit German troops stationed with the AWACS aircrafts in the NATO base in Konya. The visit has turned into a huge ordeal between Berlin and Ankara. The visiting committee is expected to be headed by NATO Deputy Secterary General Rose Gottemoeller.

The visit is planned for September 8, and the most recent crisis is about commission member Alexander Neu from Die Linke, who is not wanted by the Erdoğan regime. The regime claims Neu has ties with the PKK, and is pressuring Berlin to remove him from the committee.

The Defense Commission Chairperson SPD’s Wolfgang Hellmic said: “Neu will definitely be in the committee.” The social democratic politician spoke to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper. Hellmic will be the deputy chairperson under NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller in the committee.

SPD WARNS OF BOYCOTT FOR KONYA

SPD MP Hellmic warned of a boycott and said: “If the Turkish authorities don’t allow Die Linke’s Neu, we won’t go to Konya.” The names in the committee are not certain for now. Chancellor Merkel’s CDU is glad for the greenlighting of the Konya visit, and looks ready to make concessions regarding Neu like they did before.

But the SPD, Die Linke and the Greens are objecting to Ankara or NATO deciding on which MPs will participate in the visit. Mainstream German media is criticizing the visit’s permit being taken by NATO, and telling the Merkel government that this is not a method that should be used.

The German Federal Government led by the Christian Democratic leader Angela Merkel had made concession after concession before. First they agreed to NATO flags on the AWACS to be able to visit their soldiers stationed there. But that wasn’t enough, the Turkish state disregarded NATO’s mission and prevented the German MPs visit in July.

DIE LINKE SET ON NEU

Now Turkish President Erdoğan and the AKP government are objecting to Die Linke’s commission member Alexander Neu taking part in the commission. Die Linke MP Alexander Neu had spoken to the ANF after Ankara greenlighted the committee and said his participation in the committee was not certain yet.

Neu called the Konya permit being obtained via NATO a “rotten reconciliation,” and said: “My party doesn’t want somebody other than me to be in the committee. If the Federal Government will indirectly object to me being in the committee like Ankara does, we as Die Linke will simply not partake in the committee.”

Neu had said the following during an interview with the Deutschlandfunk radio in August 2016 when asked about the PKK: “Regarding PKK’s activity in Turkey, it is possible to discuss whether they constitute terrorism or not. One could also talk about state terrorism.”

The German MP has been targeted by the Erdoğan regime after these comments.