German Chancellor Merkel: ‘Any Turkish Citizen Can Come Visit Us’

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel has responded to Turkey's Ministry of Foreign Affair's travel alert for citizens of Turkey planning to visit Germany.

According to Deutsche Welle, Merkel said during a campaign Delbrück in the east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany:

"I want to be very clear here: Any Turkish citizen can come visit us" Merkel said and added:

"No journalists are arrested here. No journalists are put into detention here. Here, we have freedom of expression and the rule of law. And we're proud of that".

Social Democratic Party of Germany's (SPD) candidate for the German Chancellorship Martin Schulz, Secretary General of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) Peter Tauber,MP of the Left Party Sevim Dağdelen and Co-Chair of the Greens Cem Özdemir also criticized the Turkey's Ministry of Foreign Affair's travel alert earlier.

What did the Foreign Ministries of Turkey and Germany say?

According to the state-run Anadolu Agency, Ministry of Foreign Affairs had issued a travel warning and telling the citizens of Turkey who were planning to visit Germany "to be cautious and act restrained to xenophobic, racist treatments, behaviours and verbal attacks".

In its statement, the Foreign Ministry also said that "Fires were breaking out in regions predominantly resided by citizens of Turkey, and Germany pertinaciously did not address these incidents".

Foreign Ministry's travel warning was issued following an earlier travel alert issued by the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs warning citizens of Germany who are planning to visit Turkey against "arbitrary arrests of German citizens in Turkey". (NV/DG)