Europe Has Had Enough Of Turkish President Erdogan

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan address the media after talks in Berlin, Feb. 4, 2014. (photo by REUTERS/Tobias Schwarz)

Al-Monitor: Has Europe had enough of Erdogan?

The collision between Turkey and the European Union (EU) was not unexpected, arriving as it did before mid-May. Now, attention has turned to the next looming crisis, between Ankara and Berlin.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is not only the head of a leading European country who has stood firm against mounting domestic and foreign criticism of the deal she masterminded with Turkey to curb the flow of refugees into the Schengen zone. Merkel is also the de facto leader of the European Union. The deterioration of the relationship between Turkey and Germany will have a very strong imprint on the already troubled relations between Ankara and Brussels.

German weekly Der Spiegel reported May 13, “The tone between Ankara and Berlin is likely to worsen even further on June 2, when the German parliament intends to pass a resolution commemorating the 1915 genocide carried out by Turkey on the Armenians. Out of consideration for the sensitive negotiations with the government in Ankara, coalition parliamentarians opted not to pursue such a resolution last year. But now, with Erdogan not showing much interest in de-escalation, Merkel's conservatives along with the SPD [Social Democratic Party of Germany] want to pass the bill in three weeks' time. The draft resolution speaks clearly of 'genocide' and of ‘planned expulsion and destruction.’”

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WNU Editor: This is one of those "I have to see it to believe it situations". But if Germany does proceed with their Armenian genocide resolution, coupled with the end of their immigrant-visa deal with Turkey (which for all practical purposes is now dead with Turkey taking in only a small number of refugees and refusing to bend on their "anti-terror" law) .... then I know that Europe is serious. This is also a situation that Russian President Putin must be smiling over. He has been a very vocal critic of Erdogan since last year .... and now seeing Europe moving to adopt the same position vs. Erdogan that he has held since the shot-down of a Russian fighter over Syria last year must be personally gratifying.