German southern state bans foreign election campaign

Germany's southwestern state of Saarland on Tuesday announced it will prohibit foreign politicians from making electoral campaign within its territory.

"Internal Turkish conflicts have no place in Germany. Election appearances which risk our domestic peace in our country must be banned," State premier Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said in a press release, citing Clause 47 of Germany's Residence Act as his basis.

Kramp-Karrenbauer said the law can restrict "a politically motivated appearance of foreign government officials."

"Our liberal democracy is not a haven to promote undemocratic goals, "the official said.

The ban was widely seen as a new posture by Berlin amid the ongoing verbal battle with Ankara.

In recent weeks, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made several sharp criticism, accusing Berlin "acting like Nazi" and "supporting terrorists", as the German government blocked several Turkish campaign rallies and did not respond to Turkey's 4,500 documents on terror suspects in Germany, reportedly including some Kurdish militants as well as some dissidents. .

The controversial remarks has significantly degraded the already tense ties between Ankara and Berlin.

Turkey have 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.

Source: Xinhua