Austria and Turkey – almost friends again
When this became public, it rained like criticism from many sides. The Association of Social Democrats from Turkey in Austria wrote in an open letter that the visit “had cracks and shaken trust in the Viennese SPÖ”. The letter also condemns the fact that Ludwig did not meet a mayor in Turkey during the visit.
“From an institutional point of view, that would have made more sense,” agrees sociologist and political advisor Kenan Güngör. “Especially from the influence that social-democratic mayors, such as those in Istanbul or Ankara, are being massively harassed by the AKP government,” he adds. It should also be clarified what exactly would be discussed at the meetings.
With a request, the Greens want to uncover the background and purpose of Ludwig’s visit to Erdogan.
Some representatives of the SPÖ in the town hall don’t really want to recognize him either: “Basically, there’s nothing wrong with a meeting with the Turkish president. It’s always good to talk to each other,” says a comrade who wants to remain anonymous. “But I don’t see the concrete political benefit for Vienna or the SPÖ.”
Pulling the strings should be SPÖ municipal councillor
It is now widely speculated that Erdogan’s visit has only one purpose: to win votes for Viennese people with Turkish roots. Inside the SPÖ, no one believes that: the majority of the Turkish community in Vienna has been voting for the SPÖ for a century anyway, they say.
Ludwig would also have backed the wrong man, according to Güngör. “Erdoğan and the AKP are on the decline in Turkey. The mood here is not independent of that.” The political scientist Thomas Schmidinger points out that Ludwig would put off the idea of meeting Kurdish voters.
What some Reds are observing with a certain uneasiness: Apparently the contacts between the SPÖ and the AKP are so close that Erdoğan was easily persuaded to meet. According to reports within the party, Ludwig owes this primarily to a woman: Aslihan Bozatemur, who moved into the municipal council in 2020 with the impressive number of 3,719 preferential votes for the SPÖ.
The Floridsdorf native with Turkish roots was a close colleague of Ludwig for many years. You are said to have a strong close relationship with the AKP. In the 2020 election campaign, for example, the UID, which is the AKP lobby group in Austria, worked hard for Bozatemur.
When asked about it by the KURIER at the time, Bozatemur asserted that he only knew the UID from the media. At the moment she was not ready for an interview. In her environment, it is denied that the municipal councilor has a particularly close relationship with the AKP and Erdoğan: They are networked in all directions. Only recently – documented on Instagram – did she also meet with Ankara’s mayor Mansur Yavaş. He belongs to the CHP, the largest opposition party.