Germany summons Turkish diplomat over opponent lawmakers' arrests

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has requested that the chargé d'affaires in the Turkish embassy be summoned to the ministry for discussions about Turkey's arrests of opposition lawmakers, the German Foreign Ministry has said. 

"The overnight arrests of politicians and lawmakers from the Kurdish HDP [Peoples' Democratic Party] represent a further drastic intensification of the situation in the eyes of the foreign minister," the ministry said in a statement on Nov. 4, according to Reuters. 

The ministry said no one questioned Ankara's right to respond to the failed coup attempt of July 15. "But that cannot be a justification for silencing or even imprisoning the political opposition," the statement said.

Figen Yüksekdağ and Selahattin Demirtaş, the co-leaders of the opposition HDP, and 10 lawmakers from the party were detained early on Nov. 4 as part of "terrorism" investigations carried out by prosecutor's offices in the southeastern provinces of Diyarbakır and Şırnak and the eastern provinces of Hakkari, Van and Bingöl.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said the German government was "talking with our Turkish partners at all levels" about the issue.

Relations between Turkey and Germany were tense even before the lawmakers' arrests, due to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's remarks toward Merkel over her criticism of the detention of daily Cumhuriyet journalists, saying "Germany harbors terrorism."

"They are giving us advice. But it is us who is concerned about your stance. You are aiding terror! That terror will hit you like a boomerang. We have no expectations from you, but you will be remembered by history for harboring terror," Erdoğan said in a speech in Ankara on Nov....