Ok thought I‘d bring up an Austrian topic for a change.

So, the title says: „Erdogan‘s threat: Kurz shoots back“.

Basically, it all started 2014 when Turkey‘s then Prime Minister Recep Erdogan visited Vienna to hold a rally for the upcoming presidential election. We have a lot of Turkish citizens living here who are still allowed to vote in Turkey and it was a big Event. During his speech he addressed the audience as „Kara Mustafa Pascha‘s grandchildren and heirs“. Kara Mustafa Pascha was the general of the Turkish army that attacked Vienna during the second siege in 1683. Because of the history this caused quite the uproar in Vienna.

2017 Erdogan (now president) stated that he planned more rallies in European cities concerning the constitutional referendum held that year that ultimately replaced the parliamentary system with a presidential system, abolishing the post of Prime Minister and giving the president broad executive powers. None were actually held in Austria.

Fast forward to now, Austria’s Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz announced that no more Turkish rallies would be allowed in Vienna. Erdoğan has made a few statements over the years against the European Union and even threatening the countries opposing him and his style of leadership (he has been accused of antisemitism, authoritarianism, suppression of dissent and free speech in media, and more) - for example 2017 he called upon the Turks of Europe to „Make not three, but five children. Because you are the future of Europe.“ This has been interpreted as an imperialist call for demographic warfare.

After Kurz‘ announcement Erdoğan issued a warning saying that the measures taken would fall back on Austria and that everyone who tried to suppress Turkey‘s fight for democracy would have a high price to pay.

Do you think Kurz was right to install a legal foundation to prevent further election rallies in Austria?

Should foreign politicians be allowed to hold those rallies and under which circumstances?

Is this an attack against Democracy?