Federal Press Office Confirms, Merkel Not to Attend Dinner Given for Erdoğan

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President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who is currently in the US to attend the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN), will pay an official visit to Germany on September 27.

While several MPs in Germany have announced that they will not attend the official ceremony that will be held for Erdoğan, it has also been reported that Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel and Minister of Foreign Affairs Heiko Maas will not attend the official dinner which will be given by President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier for Erdoğan.

The Federal Press Office of Germany has confirmed the news previously reported by Spiegel Online and has not included Merkel and Maas in the official dinner program.

It is not clear whether it is a political decision

While the Germany-based Die Zeit newspaper has stated there is no information as to whether the decision of Merkel is political or not, Matthias Gebauer has written on Der Spiegel,

"It is hard to say that the decision of Merkel is a political message. Chancellor is invited to every official dinner. In the past, Merkel did not attend the dinners given for the Queen of England Elizabeth II and Amir of Qatar."

Several MPs will boycott the dinner

Several members of parliament in Germany have announced that they will not attend the official dinner that will be held for Erdoğan.

Among the ones who have announced their decisions of boycott are the Left Party (Die Linke) MP Sevim Dağdelen, the Chair of Free Democratic Party (FDP) Christian Lindner, Parliamentary Group Co-Chairs of the Alternative for Germany Party (AfD) Alexander Gauland and Alice Weidel, its Co-Chair Jörg Meuthen and party executive Bernd Baumann.

Cem Özdemir: Erdoğan has to put up with me

Former Co-Chair of the Greens, Cem Özdemir spoke to the Tagesspiegel daily newspaper about the visit of Erdoğan and stated that he will be at the dinner unlike other opposition politicians.

Özdemir said, "Erdoğan will have to put up with me, who stands for criticism of his authoritarian politics." (PT/SD)