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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed renewed support for the death penalty just days after he said his country was superior to Germany when it comes to respecting human rights, The Politico reported.

“Nobody who betrays this nation can remain unpunished,” Erdogan told tens of thousands of supporters who turned out in Istanbul late Saturday to commemorate one year since a coup attempt to oust him from power failed. Erdogan went on to say that the death penalty would be restored if the country’s parliament voted to bring it back, Reuters reported.

The source reminds that Erdogan’s remarks come amid renewed tensions between Ankara and Berlin. Last week, Turkey blocked German lawmakers from visiting a NATO airbase in Konya while the Turkish president said Germany’s handling of the G20 summit was “a disgrace” due to a heavy-handed clampdown on demonstrators by police.

Earlier this month, the German cabinet backed withdrawing troops from Turkey’s Incirlik air base and sending them to Jordan after visits by German lawmakers were repeatedly blocked by Ankara.

Addressing his supporters on Saturday, Erdogan honored the 250 people who lost their lives on the night of the attempted coup and claimed that millions of people had taken to the streets a year ago to defend “the honor of their nation.” He also said he would “break the heads of the traitors” who plotted the coup, the BBC reported.