Following a Turkish politician from the governing party having to wait for an evaluation of her travel documents in Germany and a threat of retaliation by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, four German diplomats in İstanbul were reportedly made to wait at the airport and missed their flight.
Turkish daily Posta reported that on the same day Erdoğan slammed Germany for holding Ayşenur Bahçekapılı up in Cologne, four Germans with diplomatic passports were made to wait nearly two hours after an extensive check of their passports and could not make it to their flights.
During his rant against Germany, Erdoğan claimed that while Germany holds a female politician for hours, it harbors terrorists, a frequent claim he makes because of Germany’s welcoming stance towards critical journalists who are labeled “terrorists” at home.
After Erdoğan had blasted Germany and threatened retaliation for making a Turkish politician “wait for hours” at the Cologne-Bonn Airport, Deutsch Welle on Wednesday reported that Deputy Parliament Speaker Bahçekapılı was in fact delayed at the gate for 45 minutes due to missing travel papers.
According to DW, Bahçekapılı, from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), wanted to travel to Turkey on Dec. 1, but provisional travel documents provided to her by a local consulate did not indicate her diplomatic status. The North Rhine-Westphalia police therefore contacted the Turkish Consulate to ascertain her status.
“The whole process lasted a maximum of 45 minutes,” a police spokesman said.
Meanwhile, Turkish media had reported that German Ambassador to Turkey Martin Erdmann was “summoned” to the Foreign Ministry over the incident, but DW reported that Erdmann was “invited” to talks, far less serious than a summons.
Erdoğan had said on Wednesday that Bahçekapılı recently had her bag stolen during a visit to Germany and that her passport and ID were gone. He said Bahçekapılı went to a Turkish consulate to get a temporary passport to be able to travel to Turkey but that she was not allowed to travel at an airport in Germany.
“Although she said she is a deputy and deputy parliament speaker, they made her wait for hours [at the airport]. Come on, you take terrorists in, you welcome them, you have them as guests. But you are making the deputy parliament speaker of this country and her delegation wait at the gate for hours,” Erdoğan said.
Erdoğan also threatened Berlin with “retaliation” if the officers involved in the incident are not investigated.
“Turkey will have to retaliate in kind if the necessary actions are not taken against the officers involved,” he added, noting that “many terrorists freely roam around Europe” despite the fact that Turkey has demanded their deportation.