BERLIN, March 13 (Xinhua) -- German government on Monday responded to the accusation by the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that it supports "terrorists," saying it is "clearly absurd."
"The chancellor has no intention of taking part in a race of provocation. She does not do that," German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said.
Earlier on Monday, Erdogan said the German government is deliberately hiding "terrorists" on its soil, as Berlin did not respond to 4,500 documents sent by Ankara on terror suspects, reportedly including some Kurdish militants as well as some dissidents.
The recent verbal battle has significantly degraded the already tense ties between Ankara and Berlin.
Turkey have been pressuring Germany, where around 1.6 million Turks resided, to extradite the dissidents, especially the military officers. However, Berlin questioned the Ankara's hunt-down and purge overseas, seeing it as violations of human rights.
Last month, a German correspondent of the newspaper "Die Welt", Deniz Yucel, was detained in Istanbul over his reports. Turkish government accused him of "supporting terrorism" despite Berlin's repeated demand for his release.