The German ambassador has already been summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry. Now President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has reported FDP Vice President Wolfgang Kubicki over his “sewer rat” statement. Cologne lawyer Mustafa Kaplan has filed a criminal complaint on behalf of Erdogan with the public prosecutor in Hildesheim for insult and defamation. Kubicki, who is also vice president of the Bundestag, was relaxed about it.
According to a “Spiegel” report, Kaplan’s letter to the prosecutor’s office states that Kubicki’s statement is apt to “contempt” the person involved. It is an “unlawful attack on another’s honor”. The magazine’s report is correct, Kaplan confirmed. In connection with Erdogan’s refugee policy, Kubicki had described the head of state as a “little sewer rat”. Erdogan has struck a deal with the European Union to reduce the number of refugees that benefit Turkey. “Nevertheless, we need to see the refugee flow through the Balkan route increase again, posing new challenges for German foreign and domestic policy,” Kubicki said during an election campaign on Wednesday.
Kubicki: “Sewer rat is a small, cute, smart creature”
He later added with reference to cartoons: “A sewer rat is a small, cute, but also smart and cunning creature, which is why it also appears as a protagonist in children’s stories (“Kalle Kanalratte”, “Ratatouille”).” Erdogan’s prestige project is a planned artificial seaway i.e. canal to be dug through the metropolis of Istanbul to connect the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea. The great economic project is controversial.
On the outside, Kubicki is extremely relaxed about the latest development. The Liberal politician said on Friday: “The fact that Mr Erdogan has initiated about 200,000 such proceedings since he took office in 2014 says it all. In any case, I look forward with equanimity to any legal dispute.” Unlike Turkey, Germany is a rule of law in which freedom of expression and freedom of expression are central to its constitution. Turkey has its own offense of insulting the president. However, the procedure was not always successful: as the newspaper “Cumhuriyet reported, about 45,000 of these complaints led to lawsuits and about 4,900 jail terms.
The case is reminiscent of the “Böhmermann affair” from 2016. At the time, TV satirist Jan Böhmermann wrote a diatribe about Erdogan and associated the president with, among other things, sex with animals. That sparked a diplomatic scandal, Erdogan reported the satirist — and achieved partial success. Some passages of the poem are forbidden.
Source: Krone
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
