Germany summons Turkish diplomat after Erdogan calls MPs 'terrorist supporters'

BERLIN, June 8 (UPI) -- Germany's Foreign Ministry has summoned the Turkish charge d'affaires for talks following inflammatory comments made by his country's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Erdogan has accused 11 German Members of Parliament of Turkish origin of being terrorist supporters, and claimed that they were "the voice" of the separatist Kurdistan Worker's Party, which he has blamed for recent terror attacks in Turkey.

Now several of the MPs have received death threats since Erdogan rounded on them following a vote in the German parliament, the Bundestag, last week to recognize the Armenian genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turks during World War I.

German Green Party joint leader Cem Özdemir has been placed under police protection after Erdogan singled him out for attack and demanded that he undergo blood tests to prove his Turkish origins.

"Some say he's a Turk. What a Turk! His blood should be sent for laboratory tests," the Turkish president said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel publicly slammed Erdogan Tuesday for his remarks.

"The allegations and statements coming from the Turkish side are incomprehensible," she said, adding that the "freely elected" German parliament was entitled to a "difference of opinion" with Turkey.

Earlier, her spokesman said that the Bundestag vote was a "sovereign decision" which Turkey "must respect".

"To associate individual members of parliament with terrorism is utterly incomprehensible to us," he said.

Turkey and Germany have traditionally been allies. But there are fears that the feud could cause lasting damage to relations between the two countries, and jeopardize the EU's controversial migrant deal with Turkey, which Erdogan has previously threatened to tear up.