German Foreign Minister's Wife Receives Threats After Harsh Remarks by Erdogan

German Foreign Minsiter Sigmar Gabriel's wife is receiving threats related to harsh statements made by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan against the minister, local media reported Monday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Rheinpfalz newspaper reported, citing Gabriel, that on Sunday night unknown people had left messages with threats on an answering machine in a dentist clinic where the minister's wife works.

"The way Erdogan does this [criticizes the minister] motivates some people to try to harass and bother my wife… When a head of state starts to act against an individual, unfortunately there are people who think they have the right to organize oppression of this individual," Gabriel was quoted as saying by the Welt newspaper.

On Saturday, Gabriel called on Ankara to abstain from meddling in the country's general elections after Erdogan called Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Greens "enemies of Turkey" and urged ethnic Turks to vote against them in the September 24 election. Following Gabriel's statement, Erdogan lashed out at the minister, warning him to "know your limits."

The relations between Berlin and Ankara have soured in recent months after Germany banned several Turkish officials from coming into the country to campaign for Erdogan ahead of a referendum that granted him more executive powers.