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Erdogan is a terrible leader, he's been arresting journalists critical of him. Even Russia has taken shots at him, implying that Turkey is the means by which I

Erdogan is a terrible leader, he's been arresting journalists critical of him. Even Russia has taken shots at him, implying that Turkey is the means by which IS is able to turn oil into cash and continue operations (my money is on the next US president deposing him). I just can't understand why Merkel would care what he thinks?

DanBC 11y ago
She may be using this as a tool to persuade politicians to scrap the law.
iso-8859-1 11y ago
Why do you assume Merkel cares what he thinks? She is just making the judiciary can do its job. Maybe it is what German voters want?
wsc981 11y ago
Because Merkel made a deal with him regarding the refugee crisis. Apparently Europe isn't in control of it's own external borders anymore (in case of Greece this is to be expected of course). And the Schengen treaty removed many internal borders. So now Merkel wants Erdogan to stop refugees on behalf of Europe. Erdogan gained a lot of indirect power in Europe with the agreement and (IMHO) this is not a good thing.
sakopov 11y ago
Isn't Germany trying to make a monetary deal with Turkey to provide asylum for "Syrian" immigrants? Considering that nobody else wants to take them I'm sure there is quite a bit of ass-kissing required to get this working.
- doczoidberg 11y ago
  German here. This is exactly the reason for Merkels decision. A side note to the comedian Böhmermann: he did also the "Varoufakis Gate". He is quite a genious satirist with real political influence.
dgregd 11y ago
> I just can't understand why Merkel would care what he thinks? Because Turkey is one of the main passages of immigrants to Europe. And Erdogan can limit the number of immigrants passing EU border. Turkey already got 6 billions Euro from EU to keep immigrants at their country. In politics two things matter: (a) what you can give me (b) how you can harm me Of course Erdogan can make further requests because Turkey still have these immigrants.

DanBC 11y ago

She may be using this as a tool to persuade politicians to scrap the law.

iso-8859-1 11y ago

Why do you assume Merkel cares what he thinks? She is just making the judiciary can do its job. Maybe it is what German voters want?

wsc981 11y ago

Because Merkel made a deal with him regarding the refugee crisis. Apparently Europe isn't in control of it's own external borders anymore (in case of Greece this is to be expected of course). And the Schengen treaty removed many internal borders. So now Merkel wants Erdogan to stop refugees on behalf of Europe. Erdogan gained a lot of indirect power in Europe with the agreement and (IMHO) this is not a good thing.

sakopov 11y ago

Isn't Germany trying to make a monetary deal with Turkey to provide asylum for "Syrian" immigrants? Considering that nobody else wants to take them I'm sure there is quite a bit of ass-kissing required to get this working.

doczoidberg 11y ago
German here. This is exactly the reason for Merkels decision. A side note to the comedian Böhmermann: he did also the "Varoufakis Gate". He is quite a genious satirist with real political influence.

dgregd 11y ago

> I just can't understand why Merkel would care what he thinks? Because Turkey is one of the main passages of immigrants to Europe. And Erdogan can limit the number of immigrants passing EU border. Turkey already got 6 billions Euro from EU to keep immigrants at their country. In politics two things matter: (a) what you can give me (b) how you can harm me Of course Erdogan can make further requests because Turkey still have these immigrants.