"Erdowie, Erdowo, Erdogan" (German for "Erdo-how, Erdo-where, Erdogan") is a satirical music video that was produced by German TV show '' extra 3'' in March 2016. The song mocks Turkish president

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician who is the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as the 25th prime minister of Turkey, prime minister from 2003 to 2014 as part of the Jus ...

. Following the release of the song, Turkey summoned the German ambassador to Turkey and demanded that the song be taken down, a request the German government refused. The Turkish government's response to the video led directly to the Böhmermann affair, when a German comedian responded with a vulgar poem directed towards Erdoğan, precipitating a diplomatic dispute.

Contents of the video

The roughly 2-minute-long video, set to the tune of "

Irgendwie, irgendwo, irgendwann "Irgendwie, irgendwo, irgendwann" (German for "anyhow, anywhere, anytime”) is a 1984 song by Nena written by band members Jörn-Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen and Carlo Karges. It was a commercial success in Europe. Released initially as a single, ...

" by German band

Nena Gabriele Susanne Kerner (born 24 March 1960), better known by her stage name Nena, is a German singer who rose to international fame in 1983 as the lead vocalist of the band Nena (band), Nena with the Neue Deutsche Welle song "99 Luftballons". I ...

, takes aim at Erdoğan over a variety of issues, including his government's treatment of refugees, his clamping down on press freedoms in Turkey (including the hostile takeover of the '' Zaman'' newspaper that month), his bombing of the

Kurds Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syri ...

in Syria, and his anti-democratic actions in Turkey. The video contains footage of police attacking protesters in Turkey with batons and water cannons, and police raids of newspaper offices, interspersed with footage of Erdoğan meeting with German Chancellor

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German retired politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. She is the only woman to have held the office. She was Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005 and Leade ...

and then-president of the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

Jean-Claude Juncker Jean-Claude Juncker (; born 9 December 1954) is a Luxembourgish politician who was List of prime ministers of Luxembourg, prime minister of Luxembourg from 1995 to 2013 and president of the European Commission from 2014 to 2019. He also was List ...

, as well as several humorous and digitally-altered scenes from Erdoğan's public life.

Reactions to the video

On 22 March 2016, Turkish government officials summoned the German ambassador to the country, Martin Erdmann, and formally complained about the video, requesting it to be taken down. In an example of the

Streisand effect The Streisand effect is an unintended consequences, unintended consequence of attempts to hide, remove, or Censorship, censor information, where the effort instead increases public awareness of the information. The term was coined in 2005 by ...

, the Turkish government reaction to the video inflamed the situation, resulting in widespread media coverage of the video. By the 24th, the video had amassed over four million views, ten times ''extra 3''s typical viewership. Following Turkey's attempt to take the video down, German satirist

Jan Böhmermann Jan Böhmermann () (born 23 February 1981) is a German Satire, satirist, journalist, podcast and television host. He also worked as a writer, producer, radio host, and is best known for his activism through publicity stunts. Early life and edu ...

responded by reading an explicit poem about Erdoğan on his TV show in late March, resulting in what became known as the Böhmermann affair. The German public strongly opposed censorship of the video. A representative of left wing political party

Die Linke Die Linke (; ), also known as the Left Party ( ), is a democratic socialist political party in Germany. The party was founded in 2007 as the result of the merger of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) and Labour and Social Justice – The ...

said, "The foreign office finally has to take a clear stand to defend press freedom. Our fundamental rights cannot be sacrificed on the altar of the shabby EU-Turkey deal." Representatives of the Christian Democratic Union, which was part of the ruling coalition at the time, told ''

Der Spiegel (, , stylized in all caps) is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of about 724,000 copies in 2022, it is one of the largest such publications in Europe. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...

'' that the party opposed Erdogan's "hopeless arrogance" and attempts at "intimidation". Some commentators noted that the attempted censorship showcased the risks of working with an authoritarian leader. , writing for the ''

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The (; ''FAZ''; "Frankfurt General Newspaper") is a German newspaper founded in 1949. It is published daily in Frankfurt and is considered a newspaper of record for Germany. Its Sunday edition is the ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung'' ( ...

'', said that the fiasco "is an indication of a clear misunderstanding of Western press freedoms" on Erdoğan's part. , the chairman of the

Deutscher Journalisten-Verband The Deutscher Journalisten-Verband (DJV) or German Journalists Association is among the largest journalists' organizations in Europe. The DJV has its headquarters in Berlin and has about 38,000 members. The chairman since 2003 has been the jour ...

, stated that Erdoğan "apparently has lost his grip" and called his anger "laughable". According to the editor of ''extra 3'', the production team was not notified of the complaint by either the Turkish or German governments, having heard about it on social media. Responding to the controversy, the show added English captions to the video and promoted it on the channel's Twitter account. They also posted a

political cartoon A political cartoon, also known as an editorial cartoon, is a cartoon graphic with caricatures of public figures, expressing the artist's opinion. An artist who writes and draws such images is known as an editorial cartoonist. They typically co ...

featuring a caricature of Erdoğan saying "Entweder ihr entfernt dieses Video oder ich lösche das Internet" ("Either you erase this video or I will extinguish the Internet") while holding a

fire extinguisher A fire extinguisher is a handheld active fire protection device usually filled with a dry or wet chemical used to extinguish or control small fires, often in emergencies. It is not intended for use on an out-of-control fire, such as one which ha ...

. For

April Fools' Day April Fools' Day or April Fool's Day (rarely called All Fools' Day) is an annual custom on the 1st of April consisting of practical jokes, hoaxes, and pranks. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fool " at the recipient. ...

in 2016, one week after the video made international headlines, ''

EUobserver ''EUobserver'' is a European online newspaper, launched in 2000 by the Brussels-based organisation EUobserver.com ASBL. The newspaper provides both daily reports and in-depth coverage on international affairs related to the European Union (EU). ...

'' ran a satirical story falsely claiming that the video had been created by

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

member states and the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

as a means to attack Erdoğan, and that it had been personally approved by Merkel.

Legacy

In 2017, ''extra 3'' created a second song mocking Erdoğan, titled "Neuer Song für Erdogan" (New Song for Erdogan), this time set to the tune of Nena's song "

99 Luftballons "99 Luftballons" (, "99 balloons") is a song by the West German band Nena from their 1983 self-titled album. An English-language version titled "99 Red Balloons" (), with lyrics by Kevin McAlea, was also released by Nena on the album '' 99 Lu ...

References

External links

Video from official ''extra 3'' YouTube channel
{{Recep Tayyip Erdoğan German political satire Germany–Turkey relations Recep Tayyip Erdoğan controversies Musical parodies Satirical songs Songs about politicians Cultural depictions of politicians Cultural depictions of Turkish people Music video controversies 2016 films