BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday she finds “incomprehensible” comments that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made following the German Parliament’s resolution labeling the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a century ago “genocide.”
Erdogan said Germany should revisit its own history, invoking the Nazi Holocaust.
He also derided German lawmakers of Turkish origin who voted for the resolution, saying they should be given blood tests to prove whether they are really Turkish. Several have subsequently reported receiving threats.
Merkel on Tuesday responded that Parliament had included references to the Nazi Holocaust in its resolution, and that Germany has not only dealt with its Nazi past but feels “duty-bound” to continue to do so.
“I simply find the accusations, or rather the statements the Turkish side made, incomprehensible,” she said.
Turkey recalled its ambassador following the resolution in Parliament and has said it intends to take further measures.
The German Foreign Ministry in Berlin on Tuesday called in the Turkish charge d’affaires, saying in a statement that officials “highlighted the traditionally close and trusting relationship between Germany and Turkey, and made clear that the recent statements about German members of Parliament are not in harmony with that.”