Erdogan calls Merkel 'enemy,' tells Turks in Germany to vote against her

ISTANBUL, Turkey (Kurdistan 24) - Turkish President on Friday said Germany's major parties were "enemies" of Turkey and asked Turks there to vote against them next month.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats were anti-Turkey and should be defeated in the upcoming elections.

The harsh comments illustrate the widening divide between the NATO allies and major trade partners.

Tension escalated between Ankara and Berlin when after the 2016 failed coup attack, Turkey sacked or suspended 150,000 people and detained more than 50,000 people, including German nationals.

Erdogan, with roots in political Islam, considers Germany's concern over its increasingly authoritarian rule anti-Turkish and anti-Muslim.

"I am calling on all my countrymen in Germany: the Christian Democrats, SDP, the Green Party are all enemies of Turkey. Support those political parties who are not enemies of Turkey," he said in comments after Friday prayers in Istanbul.

"I call on them not to vote for those parties who have been engaged in such aggressive, disrespectful attitudes against Turkey, and I invite them to teach a lesson to those political parties at the ballot box," he said.

Germany hosts a sizable Turkish diaspora, not all of whom support Erdogan.

Germans go to the polls on Sept. 24 for elections where Merkel is running for a fourth term. Her conservatives enjoy a comfortable lead over the Social Democrats (SPD), their current coalition partner and major rival.

Experts say Erdogan's comments are unlikely to sway the election's outcome.

Last November Erdogan twice accused Germany of "harboring terrorists," following criticism of a crackdown on Turkish media by the latter’s Chancellor Angela Merkel.

“Now [Merkel is] kibitzing us, telling us that they are ‘worried.’ Germany, we are worried by your stance. You are now collaborating with terror,” he continued.

“The trouble of terror will one day hit you like a boomerang. You will always be remembered in history with abetting terror,” the Turkish President added.

Additionally, Erdogan also attacked Merkel for not extraditing some of his countrymen in Germany who he called “terrorists.”