Erdogan's pre-vote visit to Germany stokes fears

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's planned pre-election address in Germany on Saturday has sparked widespread criticism in the wake of the country's mine disaster and concern over opponents' protest calls.
Amid heightened anger within Turkey over his response to last week's tragedy in which more than 300 died, Erdogan is set for a long-scheduled appearance before supporters in the western city of Cologne.
For the first time, some 2.6 million Turks living abroad - including 1.5 million in Germany alone - will be able to cast their votes in the August presidential vote in which Erdogan is expected to stand.

It will not be Erdogan's first such event in Europe's top economy, home to three million Turks or people of Turkish origin, nor the first to stir controversy, and comes on the heels of a diplomatic spat with the German president.
But its timing, just 11 days after the country's worst ever industrial disaster, has been fiercely questioned across Germany's political spectrum, with some calling for its cancellation.
Berlin has stressed that as the prime minister of a "close and important" partner country, Erdogan is welcome in Germany but highlighted the need for him to show sensitivity at a difficult time.

"I'm counting on the fact that he'll do this (appearance) on Saturday with a sense of responsibility and sensitivity," Chancellor Angela Merkel told today's Passauer Neue Presse newspaper.

Erdogan spoke by phone with Merkel later today about the Cologne visit, but mainly to discuss the Ukraine crisis, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said in a statement.
Germany's Alevi community - which follows a moderate form of Islam and makes up around a quarter of Turkey's 76 million citizens - has called an anti-Erdogan demonstration on the day for Cologne, accusing him of seeking to "polarise".
Organisers of the event, the Union of European Turkish Democrats, insisted today that Erdogan - who in February addressed supporters in Berlin a month before Turkish municipal elections - would not hold an election rally.