Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday warned Turks living in Germany against losing their own culture, echoing a similar speech of his which caused outrage three years ago, dpa reported.
"I say yes to integration," Erdogan told a crowd of 10,000 gathered in an indoor arena in the city of Dusseldorf. "We must integrate into the society we live in."
But he rejected complete assimilation. "Nobody will be able to tear us away from our culture," he insisted. His words were greeted with cheers and a sea of Turkish flags.
"Our children must learn German, but first they must learn Turkish," Erdogan added.
Police in Dusseldorf had prepared for protests late Sunday, in light of a similar speech in Cologne three years ago, which had launched a fierce debate in Germany.
"We will not allow my words to be twisted by the German media," Erdogan said on Sunday.
At the same time, the premier announced a new Turkish law that would make it easier for Turks to renounce their citizenship in favour of German nationality.
Anybody who does so is to receive a so-called Blue Card, which would carry the same recognition as an official identification card in Turkey, Erdogan said. Germany does not allow Turkish adults to carry both nationalities.
Around three million ethnic Turks live in Germany, forming the country's largest Muslim group.
The premier promised support and protection to Turks living in Germany, and said that likewise, the country would care for its tens of thousands of compatriots being evacuated from Libya.
"They too are under the guarantee of a large state, the Turkish republic," Erdogan said.
On Monday, Erdogan is to join German Chancellor Angela Merkel for the inauguration of the CeBit information technology fair in Hanover, where Turkey is this year's official partner country.
The previous day, the Turkish premier accused Merkel of opposing his country's EU membership aspirations in order to score political points with German voters.
"The expectation of the Turkish population is that Germany ... will take up a lead role in EU membership negotiations with Turkey," Erdogan told daily Rheinische Post.
Erdogan believed EU accession talks were "being delayed for purely political reasons," he told the newspaper.
Meanwhile the parliamentary head of Merkel's Christian Democrats and their Bavarian sister party, Volker Kauder, told the same paper that Turkish membership talks should not advance at present.
"I demand of the EU that they open no new negotiation chapters in the accession talks until Turkey guarantees full religious freedom," Kauder said.
Leaders of the opposition Social Democrats and Greens accused Merkel's party of closing the door on Turkey, at a time when the country had growing influence during the political turmoil in the Arab world.
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