Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lashed out at German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel when speaking from his Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) provincial advisory council meeting, Denizli, on Saturday, stating that the FM “does not know his limits.”
SOT, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish President (Turkish): “Well, now there is their foreign minister, you wouldn’t believe it. He doesn’t know about his limits. How dare you speak to the President of the Turkish Republic. Who are you? Go and talk to the Foreign Minister of Turkey. Know your limits. He dares to lecture us. What is your background in the politics? How old are you? We have spent our lives on these struggles in politics. It doesn’t matter if you open the doors to Germany or not. We are good with the opened ones. We would love to go to the countries which are opening their doors to us and we open our doors to them. We are not looking to make enemies; we are looking to reduce numbers of enemies. We are making the effort to increase our number of friends, but what can we do when the ones we are in touch with behave like this? There is a very nice Arabian idiom: Men Dakka Dukka. And we would do whatever is needed.”