In between his travels abroad, Erdoğan is always willing to pick a fight at home. Last week for instance he started a row about German foundations, accusing them of supporting the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorist organization. His provocative way of making unsubstantiated allegations makes you wonder whether maybe the prime minister spent too much time up in the air, losing touch with reality on the ground.
What did Erdoğan say, and why does it make no sense at all? On two occasions, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) leader claimed that German foundations have signed loan deals with municipalities run by Turkey’s main opposition, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), and the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), and accused them of financing the PKK in this way. He did not specify which foundations he was talking about.
Speaking about German foundations working in Turkey, most people think of the four foundations that are linked to the main German political parties, named after leading politicians or intellectuals: the Christian Democrat Konrad Adenauer, the socialist Friedrich Ebert, the liberal Friedrich Naumann and the green Heinrich Böll. All of them have been active in Turkey (and other places around the globe) for many years now, mainly organizing meetings and writing reports. Their budgets are limited, and their activities are closely monitored by both the German and Turkish authorities. There is no way that these foundations would be able to do the things Erdoğan is accusing them of.
Then there are two other German organizations -- not foundations -- that spend money in Turkey. One is Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (German Agency for International Cooperation, or GIZ). In a declaration GIZ underlined that they only support joint projects initiated, controlled and implemented by the Turkish government. The other German institution involved in a range of local projects is the KfW Development Bank, again not a foundation. Over the last 50 years, this bank has committed almost 5 billion euros in the form of low-interest loans and non-repayable grants to more than 100 projects in cities all over Turkey, run by BDP, CHP and many AKP mayors. All plans have been approved by Turkey’s Treasury Department. How could these funds have been misused?
To be honest, I really do not understand what the prime minister is up to. I remember the attacks by Turkish nationalists back in 2002 on the same political foundations, charging them with espionage. In the end, the Ankara State Security Court acquitted the foundation representatives. Why would Erdoğan want to repeat these nationalist reflexes against so-called foreign interventions in Turkey? Is Turkey, despite all the confident rhetoric abroad, still fearful that a few small foreign foundations can decisively influence developments in the country? You must be kidding.
Or is the Heinrich Böll Foundation right when their spokespersons reacted to the wild accusations by suggesting that they were not the real target? According to them, it is no coincidence that the attacks on the foundations happened in the same week that hundreds of Kurdish nationalists were arrested. They believe it is the government’s strategy to cut off elected Kurdish local politicians from international support.
Whatever the reasons behind last week’s strikes at the German foundations, I am afraid that the prime minister does not realize how much damage he has already caused. I have been working with these foundations for many years. Their representatives in Turkey are an outstanding example of well-informed Turkey specialists who put a lot of energy in trying to convince their often skeptical party colleagues at home that Turkey is moving in the right direction and that the policies of the present German government are counterproductive and not in Germany’s long-term interests.
If you would be one of them, having spent time and money in defending and assisting Turkey in a nuanced manner for years, what would you feel if the prime minister of that country publicly accuses you of being a tool in the fight of a terrorist organization? I am sure that, again, because of its own blunders, Turkey has lost some of its best friends.
