Refugee
Crisis Prevents Honest Dealings with Turkey
The
fear that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan might cancel the
refugee deal and allow masses of migrants to make their way to
Germany has shackled Angela Merkel's policies toward the autocratic
leader. It's time to come up with a European solution that decreases
our dependence on Turkey.
© Maurice Weiss A
DER SPIEGEL Editorial By Markus Feldenkirchen
Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants to hold a major speech in Germany soon. He
hopes to use it as a chance to promote proposed changes to the
Turkish constitution that would be the decisive step in transforming
his country from an autocratic, despotic state to a dictatorship.
It's the height of chutzpah: The Turkish president wants to take
advantage of our freedom of assembly and expression to promote the
elimination of precisely those civil liberties in Turkey. Must we
accept this?
There are very
strong voices out there who would like to ban the appearances by
Erdogan and the cabinet ministers who he controls. A number of cities
have already formally canceled planned events, citing security
concerns. Those decisions prompted Erdogan over the weekend to
compare the bans to methods used by the Nazis, a comparison that is
as outrageous as it is dumb, further escalating tensions between
politicians in Germany and Turkey.
But those who seek
to prevent speeches because they don't like the content are simply
falling prey to the same reflexes as the despot himself. In
mid-February, the Turkish judiciary under Erdogan's control detained
Deniz Yücel, the Turkey correspondent for the German daily Die Welt
and a dual German-Turkish citizen, because the regime doesn't like
what he writes in his articles. More than 150 Turkish journalists had
already been silenced earlier by Erdogan's repressive apparatus.
German politicians
should also seek to avoid empty vengeance. The travel bans or
economic sanctions that some are calling for would be acts of
defiance that might satisfy a need for revenge, but they wouldn't
help anyone. As difficult as it might be, ongoing dialog with Erdogan
and his regime remains vital, not least so as to help regime victims
like Yücel. But this dialog must be conducted with confidence, with
independence and in harmony with our own convictions.
Driven By Fear
Unfortunately,
Chancellor Angela Merkel and her government are anything but
confident when it comes to dealing with Erdogan. Instead they are
sadly inhibited. That is primarily because Merkel's Turkey policies
are mostly driven by fear. She is paralyzed by concerns that Erdogan
could put an end to the refugee deal -- a threat he has repeatedly
issued. The deal's goal isn't all that complex: Erdogan, whose
country is home to just under 3 million refugees, has agreed to
prevent a further wave of migration to Germany and is being paid a
handsome sum of money for his services as doorman. Not just with
billions of European euros for the care of refugees in Turkey. But
also with ignoble silence about his trampling of democracy and human
rights.
Given that a new
wave of refugees could destroy Merkel's chances of re-election this
fall, the chancellor has been conspicuously submissive in her
approach to Erdogan. When German comedian Jan Böhmermann last year
recited a viciously critical poem about Erdogan on air, Merkel
quickly denounced it for being "intentionally abusive."
Anticipatory subservience rarely comes across as dignified. The fact
that Erdogan's army destroys Kurdish villages and is putting not only
journalists, but also countless civil servants in jail, by contrast,
is seldom if ever commented on by the German government. Instead
Merkel paid her compliments to the president on two occasions ahead
of important votes in Turkey and, consciously or not, became an
accomplice by doing so.
Merkel's government
has also acted strangely in the case of journalist Yücel. It was not
a coincidence that the Turkish ambassador in Berlin was requested to
attend a meeting to discuss the issue in Berlin. When governments
want to send a clear message of disapproval, they issue a summons to
ambassadors, as the Turkish government did to the German ambassador
on Thursday when the city of Gaggenau canceled a propaganda event
with the Turkish justice minister. But even that goes too far for
this German government, despite one of its citizens being deprived of
his freedom for merely doing his job -- that of helping to protect
freedom.
To exude confidence
and once again act in accordance with German values, Merkel must
overcome her fear for once and for all. That doesn't mean ending the
refugee deal herself. But she should cease allowing her actions to be
determined by the fear of Erdogan doing so. It's time to develop
alternatives -- by promoting a European refugee policy that does not
outsource the protection of EU borders to Turkey but instead sees the
EU taking on that responsibility. Key countries involved in the
refugee crisis, including Italy and Greece, finally need to be
provided with support in the form of money, experts and
infrastructure that they need in order to register migrants at the
EU's external border, review their cases and make a decision as to
whether they should be deported or not. It's high time for Europe to
free itself from Erdogan's shackles.
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