Merkel Ally Assails Turkey on Human Rights

By JUDY DEMPSEY

BERLIN — Horst Seehofer, the leader of the governing Christian Social Union party in Bavaria and a key ally in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right government, on Wednesday issued a strong attack against Turkey’s human rights record and warned Ankara not to interfere in the integration debate taking place in Germany.

At the same time, Mr. Seehofer, who is opposed to Turkey’s becoming a member of the European Union, called on immigrants to “sign up to German values,” including the adoption of the German language, fueling further the debate on how to integrate many of the four million Muslims and highlighting the rift in German-Turkish relations.

With two important regional elections taking place this month, analysts said some prominent members of Mrs. Merkel’s conservative bloc were using the integration issue to win votes, despite warnings from Lutheran bishops and Turkish community leaders against singling out Muslims.

“This is about drumming up support during the regional elections,” said Michael Maier, editor of the German-Turkish news agency. “It is also about the conservatives trying to create some sort of profile, which at the moment they lack.”

Mr. Seehofer cited a speech that the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, made last month in Düsseldorf to an estimated crowd of 11,000 Turkish residents in which he said Turks should integrate, but not assimilate, into German culture.

Speaking in Passau, southern Bavaria, on Ash Wednesday — the one day of the year when German politicians traditionally attack their political opponents without hesitation — Mr. Seehofer said Mr. Erdogan had no right to criticize Germany’s dominant way of life given what is happening in Turkey.

“A country that disregards the human rights of women as much as Turkey does, that on its own territory renders life difficult for Christians, from such a prime minister we do not need lessons about how to deal with religious minorities in our countries,” Mr. Seehofer said.

Mr. Erdogan’s Düsseldorf speech has since been become the subject of much debate among conservatives, including the new interior minister, Hans-Peter Friedrich, who is also a member of the Christian Social Union.

During his first day in office last week, Mr. Friedrich said Islam was not part of the German culture and repeated that immigrants, especially Muslims living in Germany, should make German their first language.

Mr. Seehofer, however, took the debate further on Wednesday when he said those who wanted to stay in Germany should be ready to sign up to German values. He proposed a change to the Bavarian Constitution so that the authorities in the state would be under obligation to help with the integration process but that minorities, too, should be prepared to actively support the integration process. Any change to the Constitution would require a referendum.

via Merkel Ally Assails Turkey on Human Rights – NYTimes.com.