Turkey summons German ambassador over Erdogan satire video

ANKARA // Turkey summoned Germany’s ambassador to protest about a two-minute song lampooning president Recep Tayyip Erdogan that was broadcast on German television, a diplomatic source said yesterday.

“We summoned the ambassador last week to communicate our protest about the broadcast that we condemned,” the source said. “We demanded that the broadcast is removed from the air.”

On March 17, German regional television NDR broadcast the song, “Erdowie, Erdowo, Erdogan”, which ridiculing the Turkish president, his alleged extravagant spending and clampdown on civil liberties.

“A journalist who writes something that Erdogan does not like is tomorrow already in jail,” said the song’s lyrics, which were broadcast on the “extra 3” television show.

Alluding to the government’s military moves against the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, it said: “He hates the Kurds like the plague and prefers to bomb them rather than the religious brothers from Islamic State.”

Ankara vehemently denies that the military campaign targets Turkey’s Kurdish minority, saying it is only aimed at wiping out “terrorists”.

Mr Erdogan’s government has been accused by critics of authoritarianism and gagging critical media as well as politicians, academics, lawyers and non-government groups.

EU heavyweight Germany sees Turkey as Europe’s main partner in tackling a wave of refugees landing at its borders.

But chancellor Angela Merkel has said Germany will stick to its values and keep insisting on civil and minority rights in Turkey.

* Agence France-Presse