President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday called on Turks living in Germany not to vote for the two parties in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling grand coalition or the Greens in next month’s legislative elections, calling them “enemies of Turkey”, reports AFP.

Upping the stakes in a intensifying row with Berlin, Erdogan said ethnic Turks in Germany should not cast their ballots either for Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the Social Democratic Party (SPD) of Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, or the Greens.

“I tell all my kinsmen in Germany... not to vote for them. Neither the Christian Democrats nor the SPD nor the Greens. They are all enemies of Turkey,” Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul in televised comments.

He accused the SPD and CDU in the election campaign of playing a game of “the more you beat up Turkey, the more votes you get”.

“You need to support political parties there now which do not display enmity to Turkey. Whether it’s the first party or the second party, it does not matter, support them,” he said.

Erdogan did not make clear which German political party he would like people to support in the polls for the Bundestag on September 24.

“For all our citizens living in Germany this is now a struggle of honour,” he added.

Tensions have spiralled in recent months between Germany and Turkey, in one of the most significant crises in years between two NATO allies with long-standing historical links.

Germany has lambasted Turkey over the magnitude of the crackdown in the wake of last year’s failed coup which has seen several German citizens arrested, including journalists.