Turkish minister cancels trip to German town over strained ties

Turkey's Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag on Thursday called off his trip to Germany's southern town of Gaggenau after a scheduled political rally there was blocked.

Bozdag had intended to meet his German counterpart and address the Turkish community in the town, in an attempt to expand popularity for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who foiled a military coup against him in July 2016.

"That meeting will not take place. I will return to Turkey," Bozdag said to the German private television station N-TV, calling the act "unacceptable" and "not democratic".

Gaggenau authorities said the gathering was canceled due to security reasons, citing there will be "no enough room" to the crowds.

German media, however, attributed the cancellation to the strained ties between the two countries.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned Germany's ambassador later on Thursday to express the disapproval about the cancellation.

Also on the same day, the city of Cologne turned down visiting request from the Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zaybekci.

A series of disputes surfaced since the failed coup aimed to oust Erdogan.

Turkey has been pressuring Germany, where around 1.6 million Turks resided, to extradite the dissidents, especially the military officers. However, Berlin questioned the Ankara's hunt-down and purge overseas, seeing it as violations of human rights.

Last month, a German correspondent of the newspaper "Die Welt", Deniz Yucel, was detained in Istanbul over his reports. The Turkish government accused him of "supporting terrorism" despite Berlin's repeated demand for his release. Endit