In the diplomatic crisis with Turkey, the federal government reacted disgruntled to the threatened expulsion of the German ambassador and nine other diplomats from western countries.
Government spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Monday in Berlin that the government took the statements of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to declare the diplomats to be undesirable persons “with concern and also with incomprehension”.
Meanwhile, the cabinet should meet in Ankara to discuss the next steps.
The Turkish lira fell to a record low.
Erdogan caused a scandal over the weekend by announcing that ten Western ambassadors would be declared "undesirable persons" - in protest against their expression of solidarity with the imprisoned Turkish cultural promoter Osman Kavala.
The classification, also known as “persona non grata”, is usually followed by expulsion.
Affected are, among others, Germany, France and the USA.
In Berlin, government spokesman Seibert and a spokeswoman for the Federal Foreign Office emphasized that no formal notification from Turkey on the matter had yet been received.
Berlin had “intensively” consulted with the other affected states over the weekend;
these conversations continued, said the Foreign Office spokeswoman.
Germany wants to consult about a reaction
Should the diplomats actually declare undesirable persons, this would contradict the depth and importance of German-Turkish relations, said the spokeswoman.
It would also not correspond to “dealing with NATO allies”.
If it comes to that, Germany will again consult with the other affected countries about the reaction.
The spokeswoman did not want to speculate about possible steps in this case.
Seibert did not want to comment either.
The Foreign Office spokeswoman pointed out that the declaration of the undesirable person was a "particularly serious measure" in diplomatic relations.
Fortunately, it therefore occurs “not so often”.
According to reports, the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and several other cabinet members tried on Monday to persuade Erdogan to change his mind.
In Turkey, outside the immediate vicinity of the president, there is "great concern" that such a step would "mean a break that would massively damage Turkey," said the foreign policy spokesman for the Union parliamentary group, Jürgen Hardt (CDU), on Deutschlandfunk.
It is expected that the affected nations would respond to expulsion with the same measure.
This is likely to worsen Ankara's relations with Western countries dramatically.
Erdogan's threat meanwhile caused the lira to drop to a record low.
Apparently the market fears a new phase of tension with the West.
Lira rate falls even further
Early Monday morning, 9.80 lira were asked for one dollar, later the rate recovered slightly and stood at 9.73 lira.
The Turkish currency has already fallen 24 percent against the dollar since the beginning of the year.
It also fell sharply against the euro.
At the beginning of the week, the ambassadors from Germany, France, the USA and seven other countries called in a joint appeal for the release of the cultural promoter Kavala, who had been in prison for four years without conviction.
Ankara described the call, which was unusual for diplomatic practice, as "unacceptable" and summoned the ambassadors.
Kavala, who was born in Paris, runs one of the largest publishing houses in Turkey and, with his organization Anadolu Kültür, advocates dialogue between ethnic groups, for example in the Kurdish conflict or with the Armenians.
He was also one of the founders of the Turkish branch of the Open Society Foundation of the US philanthropist George Soros, the enemy of many populists.