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Erdogan travels to Berlin for Turkey match – Germany summons Turkish ambassador
Status: 12:12 pm | Reading time: 2 minutes
In the midst of the wolf salute scandal – Erdogan wants to come to Berlin for Türkiye’s quarter-final match
Following criticism of the goal celebration by Turkish national football player Merih Demiral at the European Championships, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants to travel to Berlin at short notice to watch the quarter-final match between Turkey and the Netherlands in the stadium.
Turkey’s European Championship quarter-final against the Netherlands is becoming even more politically charged. Turkish President Erdogan wants to travel to the game; he wants to support the team after criticism of the wolf salute. The Turkish ambassador has been asked to come to Berlin for talks.
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Following the harsh criticism of the goal celebration by Turkish national player Merih Demiral at the European Championships, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants to travel to Berlin at short notice to watch the quarter-final match between Turkey and the Netherlands in the stadium (9 p.m., in the WELT sports ticker). Erdogan canceled his planned trip to Azerbaijan for this purpose, as the German Press Agency learned from informed sources.
Turkish media said the reason was the debate about the so-called wolf salute that Demiral had triggered with his goal celebration. Erdogan wanted to support the Turkish team.
Demiral had shown the so-called wolf salute after his second goal in the 2-1 round of 16 win against Austria in Leipzig on Tuesday, which is associated with a right-wing extremist movement. Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faser (SPD), among others, sharply criticized this.
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The 26-year-old Demiral had formed the sign and symbol of the Grey Wolves with both hands. The Grey Wolves are the name given to the supporters of the right-wing extremist “Ülkücü movement”, which is monitored in Germany by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. In Turkey, the ultra-nationalist MHP is their political representative and an ally of Erdogan’s Islamic-conservative AKP.
Turkish ambassador summoned
The greeting usually expresses affiliation and sympathy with the movement and its ideology. Demiral had said that he only wanted to use the gesture to express that he was proud to be Turkish and that there was no hidden message behind it. Recently, the wolf salute had also been used by parts of the opposition in Turkey to address nationalists – for example, during the election campaign by former presidential candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who belongs to the Alevi religious minority.
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On Thursday, it was also announced that the Federal Republic had summoned the Turkish ambassador to the Foreign Office to discuss the incident, a ministry spokeswoman in Berlin said. The German ambassador in Ankara had already been summoned on Wednesday. The Turkish government accuses Germany of “xenophobia” in the case.
It is still unclear whether Demiral will take part in the game. UEFA expressly prohibits political statements on the pitch and has launched an investigation into the Turkish defender.
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The Turkish Foreign Ministry described the investigation as unacceptable. Not every person who displays the symbol of the Grey Wolves can be described as right-wing extremist, it said. The wolf salute is also not banned in Germany.
