Turkey's envoy denies Turkish origins of Kurdish-Austrian politician
Turkish ambassador to Austria Ozan Ceyhun has denied Berivan Aslan's Turkish origins in an interview. His remarks were slammed by the Kurdish-Austrian politician, who asked "Can your Turkish origins be accepted only if you bow to the AKP?"
Duvar English
Turkish ambassador to Austria Ozan Ceyhun has denied Kurdish-Austrian politician Berivan Aslan's Turkish origins in an interview.
During the interview, Ceyhun and the host, Adil Elmas, were talking about politics in Austria when Elmas said that 100 individuals were elected to the Vienna Federal Assembly.
"Three of them are of Turkish-origin," Ceyhun said, interrupting Elmas, who corrected the envoy by saying that there are actually four Turkish-origin assembly members.
"One of them doesn't count herself as one of us, so I don't want to comment on that, but there are three individuals who describe themselves as of Turkish origin," the envoy said.
Green Party politician Aslan, who is a vocal critic of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, shared footage from the interview, slamming the envoy for denying her origins.
"Yet another diplomacy scandal. The ambassador keeps referring to me as 'the other one.' It's shameful for a diplomat to use discriminating language!" Aslan tweeted on Nov. 29.
"No one or state can take a person's origins away from her. This right is a basic right of everyone," she added.
Aslan also asked whether one can be of Turkish origin if they bow to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
"Can your Turkish origins be accepted only if you bow to the AKP? Is this what you understand from diplomacy?!" she tweeted.
In September, a Turkish defector claimed that he was ordered to kill Aslan by the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MİT).
Feyyaz Öztürk said that he didn't want to shoot Aslan and asked for police protection.