German town that cancelled Turkish event gets bomb threat

German authorities have evacuated the city hall of the southwestern town of Gaggenau over a bomb threat received a day after the town’s mayor cancelled an event where Turkey’s justice minister was scheduled to deliver a speech.

Police started its search operation after the building was evacuated on Friday.

In response to a question about any connections between the evacuation of the city hall and the cancellation of the event, mayor Michael Pfeiffer said, “We presume this at the moment, but we do not know for sure. We presume there is a direct link.”

“We do not know how seriously we should take this threat,” Pfeiffer said.

Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag had planned to address supporters of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in the festival hall of the town on Thursday. Bozdag’s planned speech was as part of Ankara’s campaign to rally support among Germany’s estimated 1.5 million Turkish citizens for the April 16 referendum on expanding the powers of the Turkish presidency.

The German officials cited a lack of space as the main reason for cancelling the meeting. Bozdag condemned the move in return, claiming it smacked of hypocrisy.

On Friday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu accused Germany of double standards over cancelling Bozdag’s planned speech and  noted that Berlin must “learn how to behave” if it wanted to maintain relations.

A day earlier, the Turkish Foreign Ministry had summoned German Ambassador to Ankara Martin Erdmann to protest the cancellation of rallies in support of Erdogan ahead of the referendum.

Meanwhile, the German Press Agency, citing an official from the city of Cologne, said a March 5 event, where Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci would be holding a pro-Erdogan rally, has also been canceled.

SS