Germany expects other states to abstain from interfering in its internal affairs following the Turkish leader's call on the Turkish diaspora to vote against the German ruling parties, a government spokesman said Friday.
"As for the recent statement of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, we expect that other governments will not interfere in our internal affairs," German government spokesman Steffen Seibert tweeted.
The warning came after Erdoğan called Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the Social Democratic Party (SPD) of Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel and the Greens "enemies of Turkey" and urged ethnic Turks to vote against them in the September 24 election.
Analysts say that some 1.2 million people of Turkish origin will have the right to vote in the September polls as German citizens.
German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel has accused the Turkish president of trying to "drive a wedge" between people in Germany and urged them to resist what he described as a "blatant interference" in the German election campaign.
"That is a unique violation of our country's sovereignty. I call on all German people to counteract these incitement attempts," Gabriel said in a statement.
But Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ, who is also the official government spokesman, strongly defended Erdoğan's comments saying they were only aimed at Turkish-origin voters in Germany. He accused Germany of meddling in Turkey's presidential referendum saying the German government's attitude was very clear in backing the 'No' camp.
He also reaffirmed past Turkish accusations against Germany that it was giving refuge both to wanted Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants and suspected plotters in the July 15, 2016, failed coup bid.
