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Supporters of Turkish President Erdoğan in Cologne in July 2016

Photo: Henning Kaiser/dpa

The President of the German-Israeli Society, Volker Beck, has criticized the establishment of a German branch of the Turkish ruling party AKP. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is trying to “disintegrate” people of Turkish origin in Germany and “build a parallel world,” Beck told Welt TV. The AKP is trying to "divide our society - and we have to act against it together."

The background is reports about the founding of a “Turkish Islamist party” called DAVA (Democratic Alliance for Diversity and Awakening). According to the "Bild" newspaper, four men who are said to have previously worked for President Erdoğan's Islamic-conservative ruling party AKP or its support organizations want to run as top candidates for the European elections. The Turkish news agency Anadolu reported, citing the founding manifesto, that the new party wanted to be a "strong voice for the politically underrepresented."

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Beck evaluated Erdoğan's DAVA initiative in the tradition of a strategy that has been going on for years to build a parallel world in Germany that is loyal to the AKP: Erdoğan and the AKP have been working for years to build a "parallel world" that is loyal to the AKP by founding schools, mosque associations and other things.

The SPD chairwoman Saskia Esken expressed concern. »For me it is important that we make it clear to our fellow citizens of Turkish origin in Germany that Germany belongs together, that we are one people, that we will not allow forces like these right-wing extremist networks to come close to power , who want to deport migrants, but of course the divisive tendencies of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan should not play a role here either."

"The last thing we need"

Federal Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir (Greens) wrote on "Parties that are founded and run here must commit to our free basic order and live by it."

Green Party European politician Anton Hofreiter was also concerned. "It has been a problem for years that the Turkish state has too much influence over us." The chairman of the Bundestag's European Committee cited, among other things, "Erdogan's interference in our politics" as an example. Regarding DAVA, he said: "Of course we can't have anything like that controlled by Erdogan, who is obviously an autocrat."

The Union took the founding of the party as an opportunity to renew its criticism of the planned reform of citizenship law. The CDU and CSU had "explicitly warned that easier dual citizenship would make it attractive to found an Erdoğan branch in Germany," wrote deputy parliamentary group leader Jens Spahn on .

mfh/dpa/AFP