Ankara summons German envoy over incident involving Turkish lawmaker

Turkey's Foreign Ministry summoned Germany's Ambassador to Ankara Martin Erdmann on Wednesday after police stopped Turkish lawmaker Ayse Nur Bahcekapili at Cologne airport, Anadolu Agency quoted diplomatic sources.

The Turkish Embassy in Berlin had provided the AK Party lawmaker, who is also the deputy speaker of the Turkish Parliament, with a temporary travel document after her bag, that contained her passport, went missing.

However, police officials at the airport did not accept the temporary passport and stopped Bahcekapili from proceeding towards her flight.

Later, they attempted to detain the lawmaker on suspicions that she had entered the country illegally.

"It was impolite in terms of my country… I am a lawmaker of this country [Turkey]. If we show respect and courtesy to German or foreign parliamentarians, we have a natural right to expect respect and courtesy in the same way," Bahcekapili said.

Turkey's president hit out the German authorities on Wednesday over the incident.

"You allow terrorists and welcome them, put them up, but you make our deputy parliament speaker and delegation wait at the gate for hours," he said.

Erdogan was referring to the PKK members who have sought a safe haven in Germany. The PKK is considered as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

"If you behave towards my deputy parliament speaker, a female lawmaker, like this, if your police officer does this, then I need to retaliate to it in the same way," Erdogan said.

Germany's public international broadcaster Deutsche Welle quoted North Rhine-Westphalia police as saying that Bahcekapili had provided provisional papers that did not show her diplomatic status.

The police, therefore, contacted the Turkish consulate to review her status. "The whole process lasted a maximum of 45 minutes," the police spokesperson said.