Artists in Germany have projected images onto the Turkish and Saudi Arabian embassies in Berlin comparing Turkey’s Erdogan to Hitler and implicating the Saudis as supporting terrorism.
The artists projected a large picture of Turkish president Recep Erdoğan wearing a Nazi armband and Hitler’s toothbrush moustache in protest against the recent imprisonment of two journalists in Turkey.
Beside the picture on the walls of the Turkish embassy were the words “He’s back”.
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Sputnik news reports:
A group of German artists have used an unusual method to draw attention to the activities of the Turkish government, using a projector to cover the Turkish Embassy with images of Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan where the mustached authoritarian leader resembles Hitler.
One of the images depicts Erdogan wearing a red and white Nazi armband and Hitler mustache, and another shows him side by side with Hitler.’
Oliver Bienkowski from PixelHELPER, the group of artists responsible, told Sputnik Germany that they are seeking to highlight parallels between the Turkish President and their country’s most infamous leader.
“We wanted to draw attention to the terrible human rights violations that Erdogan has perpetrated in his country, for example: persecution of the opposition, abolition of the opposition’s rights in parliament, sentry guns on the border with Syria, and restrictions on press freedom,” Bienkowski explained.
The group posted their work on Facebook, where users were divided over the images; some praised the artists but one said he disagreed with an attempt to compare “Erdogan or any other contemporary politician to Hitler,” calling it a “trivialization of the Holocaust.”
The Turkish Embassy in Berlin yesterday. #Erdogan #Hitler #Turkey #Germany #TwitterKurds pic.twitter.com/OelIZRpHjL
— Para Keta (@ParaKeta) May 11, 2016
Bienkowski responded to the criticism, telling Sputnik that he thinks the comparison with Hitler is a valid one.
“When comparing Erdogan with Hitler, apart from the Holocaust, there are definite parallels,” he said, and alleged that Turkey is supplying arms to the terrorist group Daesh.
“There are secret arms deliveries to Daesh using the camouflaged trucks of the German Red Cross, which doesn’t happen in even the worst guerrilla wars. The fact that Turkey also buys oil from Daesh terrorists means that it simply cannot be a negotiating partner for the EU,” Bienkowski said.
The artist, speaking on Friday, almost a week after the caricatures were first published on Saturday night, said that as yet the group has not received any response from the Turkish embassy or the authorities, and does not expect any legal consequences.
“We did get some death threats, but nothing has really happened.”
“We projected our Hitler caricature of Erdogan onto the building as an art installation, like an ordinary newspaper cartoon, and we are relying on the freedom of the press, that’s why there can be no legal action,” he said.
On May 12 the group uploaded more pictures to Facebook exhibiting their artwork, this time at the Saudi embassy. Their caricatures accuse Riyadh of financing Daesh, and called on the German government to stop arms exports to Saudi Arabia.
