It’s Complicated: Germany and Turkey’s troubled free speech relationship
By Allison Meakem November 6, 2016
This July, a sea of red flags emboldened with crescent moons swept over a reeling nation. Just two weeks after Turkey’s failed coup d’état – during which military leaders sent fighter jets flying over Ankara, leaving almost 300 people dead – 40,000 people gathered to support President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. But they were not standing along the Bosporus in Istanbul – instead, they stood on the banks of the Rhine river in Cologne. Like many German cities, Cologne is home to a large population of Turkish migrants and Germans of Turkish descent, emblematic of the two country’s close intercultural ties. Yet Cologne has also become a battleground for the escalating turf war between the two countries over issues of national sovereignty and free speech.
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