Dare more Turkey,” ex-Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel wrote on Twitter a few days ago.
One wonders what he means by that.
Dare more Lokum, more Börek, more Manti?
More censorship, more autocracy, more war of aggression contrary to international law?
Gabriel explained: “Looking at the map shows how important Turkey is for our security.
More than 2500 foreign guests accepted the invitation of Foreign Minister Mevlut Çavuşoglu to the Antalya Diplomacy Forum - unfortunately only a few from Germany and Europe.
That should change.” Gabriel also posted a photo of himself with Foreign Minister Çavuşoglu.
This was followed by a tweet in which he got angry about the "know-it-alls" and "moral preachers", because his happy friendship picture with Çavuşoglu upset some people.
Yes, yes, poor Gabriel, always the tiresome subject of human rights.
The photo of Gabriel as a tea boy is unforgettable: he serves Çavuşoglu in his winter garden in Goslar Cay.
That was in 2018, Gabriel was still a minister, Deniz Yücel was still in jail, as were tens of thousands of other political prisoners, the illegal invasion of Kurdish Afrin in northern Syria was being prepared, and in Germany Ditib made headlines with its spy scandals.
Yes, the Çavuşoglu who likes to show the wolf salute with one hand - the sign of the far-right Gray Wolves - and with the other the R4bia salute, the sign of the Muslim Brotherhood.
This Çavuşoglu calls Gabriel "his dear friend".
How could one describe this phenomenon?
Tea boy phenomenon?
Dictatorship Distance Disorder?
One could also say that Sigmar Gabriel is Erdogan's Gerhard Schröder.
And Gabriel and Schröder are by no means the only politicians with an autocrat problem, just think of the Azerbaijan affair a few years ago.
There were politicians from the CDU/CSU, then still the governing party, involved in corruption and lobbying with the Aliyev regime.
And how is the new federal government doing?
Annalena Baerbock also recently shared a photo of herself and Çavuşoglu and thanked them for the "strong German-Turkish partnership".
On Monday, Olaf Scholz visited Erdogan's palace.
He had previously laid a wreath at the grave of the founder of the republic and mass murderer Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
Because what many in this country still don't know: Atatürk not only brought secularism to Turkey, but also his military to the Dersim region, where tens of thousands of people were murdered or deported in the course of a genocidal massacre of Kurdish Alevis.
At the press conference, Scholz and Erdogan stood in front of Turkish and German flags in an almost friendly togetherness.
Erdogan ranted about Turkish-German relations - militarily,
economic, cultural.
Both agreed that it could be expanded further.
Erdogan also spoke about cooperation in digitization and Germany as a partner in tourism.
And Scholz about opportunities for cooperation in the energy industry, after all, they no longer want to be dependent on Russian gas.
Dependence on autocratic Turkey, on the other hand, does not seem to be a problem even after years of blackmail by Erdogan with the refugee deal.
Oh well.
Dependence on autocratic Turkey, on the other hand, does not seem to be a problem even after years of blackmail by Erdogan with the refugee deal.
Oh well.
Dependence on autocratic Turkey, on the other hand, does not seem to be a problem even after years of blackmail by Erdogan with the refugee deal.
Oh well.
Apparently not worth mentioning
Overall, after the press conference, one had the feeling that their motto was a bit "Good Autocrats - Bad Autocrats".
It is now hoped that Erdogan could mediate between Russia and Ukraine.
If that ends Putin's war, there you go.
Scholz said: "With every bomb, Putin moves further away from the world community." But what about Erdogan's bombs on Kurdish civilians in northern Syria and in the autonomous region of Kurdistan?
They are obviously not worth mentioning.
In the end it was about human rights.
It sounded ritualized when Scholz said that there were of course also differences on the subject of human rights and the rule of law, such as the "prospects of German nationals in Turkey who are under house arrest and exit bans or are even in prison".
Not a word about the situation in the Kurdish areas in northern Syria occupied by Turkey and its Islamist mercenaries, or about minorities like the Yazidis.
Nor about the 1,500 civilian casualties of the Turkish Air Force in Kurdistan, Iraq and Syria, according to the Airwars organization.
In general, it hardly seems worth mentioning when Kurds are being bombed.
By the way, not only the Turkish military does this.
Rockets from Iran were fired at Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Autonomous Region on Saturday night.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guards claimed they had attacked an Israeli intelligence base.
Only there is no Israeli intelligence base in Erbil.
On March 21, Kurds celebrate the Newroz festival.
According to legend, on this day the blacksmith Kawa overthrew the tyrant Zahak, who had two child-brain-eating snakes growing out of his shoulders.
Dare more Kurdistan, one would like to reply to Sigmar Gabriel on this day.
Dare more human rights anyway.