Head of Turkish-European Lobbying Group Welcomes Erdoğan to Ukraine

The head of a Turk­ish-Euro­pean lob­by­ing group sup­port­ing Pres­i­dent Erdoğan and his AKP greet­ed Erdoğan when he arrived in Ukraine. Accord­ing to the Union of Inter­na­tion­al Democ­rats Face­book post:

On the occa­sion of our Pres­i­dent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Ukraine pro­grams, UID Chair­man Kök­sal Kuş and Deputy Chair­man Gen Ali Kılınç wel­comed them at the Kiev airport.

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As GIOR has report­ed, Kök­sal Kuş has also been a mem­ber of the Gray Wolves, a Turk­ish ultra­na­tion­al­ist movement.

The Union of Inter­na­tion­al Democ­rats (UID; for­mer­ly known as the Union of Euro­pean Turk­ish Democ­rats) describes itself as a vol­un­tary NGO  found­ed in 2004 that oper­ates in sev­er­al Euro­pean coun­tries. Its aims include increas­ing the eco­nom­ic, polit­i­cal, and social activ­i­ties of Turks and “sis­ter com­mu­ni­ties” abroad with­out alien­at­ing their iden­ti­ties and val­ues as well as com­bat­ting Islam­o­pho­bia. Ger­man media has described it as a lob­by­ing group for Pres­i­dent Erdoğan and his AKP that empha­sizes Turk­ish val­ues and cus­toms. The Ger­man Office for the Pro­tec­tion of the Con­sti­tu­tion mon­i­tors the UID, describ­ing it as “nation­al­ist” and incom­pat­i­ble with Germany’s free demo­c­ra­t­ic order.