German Chancellor Olaf Scholz meets with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, Turkey, March 14, 2022. Guido Bergmann/BPA/Handout via Portal/File Photo acquire license rights
- Erdogan’s first visit to Germany in almost four years
- Needs Scholz’s blessing to buy fighter jets
- Trade relations and EU visas play a major role ahead of local elections in Turkey
- Gaza threatens to overshadow the long-planned trip
BERLIN, Nov 17 (Portal) – They have opposing views on Israel’s war with Hamas and contradictory attitudes toward Moscow since the invasion of Ukraine, but when the leaders of Germany and Turkey meet in Berlin on Friday They provide strong economic and electoral incentives for talks.
Tayyip Erdogan’s first visit to Germany since 2020 comes ahead of local elections in which he hopes to win back the cities of Ankara and Istanbul. The prospect of better access to the European Union market and visa liberalization would be a great gift for voters suffering from high inflation and the economic crisis.
Erdogan also needs Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s blessing if he wants to buy the 40 Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets that Turkey announced on Thursday. Germany, through Airbus, is a partner in the consortium that is building it.
For Scholz, who leads a fractious three-party coalition arguing over the German economy and the impact of rising immigration on public services, Ankara is an indispensable partner because of its role in curbing migration to the EU.
In a sign of the importance of the visit, Scholz was careful not to respond directly to Erdogan’s loud condemnation of Israel’s war against Hamas, in which many thousands of Palestinians were killed.
After Erdogan on Wednesday described Hamas, which murdered about 1,200 people in its Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, as a “liberation organization,” Scholz rejected several requests to criticize Erdogan, stating only in general terms that “those against The accusations made against Israel are absurd.” “.
Given the strong condemnation, which is typically met with much more muted criticism of Israel in Germany, traditionally one of Israel’s closest allies, the reaction was extremely mild.
But Erdogan doubled down on his statement on Wednesday, calling Israel a “terrorist state” with “unlimited support” from the West, suggesting it may be impossible to contain all of Gaza’s impact during his trip.
Germany has expressed strong solidarity with Israel while urging a focus on limiting the impact of the war on the civilian population in the Gaza Strip.
The initial planning for the visit began in the summer, “but it was not expected that the Gaza conflict would break out,” said Aydin Yasar, Turkey expert at the German think tank SWP.
The visit also comes a day after the Turkish parliament’s Foreign Affairs Commission postponed a vote on Sweden’s NATO membership application, shelving the expansion of the Western alliance after Ankara waited 18 months to get related concessions from Stockholm to do with terrorism.
MISS THE GAME
The EU’s 2016 deal under which it paid Turkey to take in refugees in return for a managed resettlement program did much to stem record flows into the bloc, but the accusations between Greece and Turkey have put it under pressure set, and the increasing number of migrants is driving the situation further – across Europe.
Erdogan, who recently described Germany as “Europe’s most powerful country” to reporters, may be hoping to win Scholz’s support to revive stalled talks on modernizing Turkey’s customs union with the EU – although major changes won’t come until long after the Elections will take place in March.
Despite the efforts of both sides, Gaza has already had an impact: Erdogan was originally supposed to stay for another day, which would have enabled him and Scholz to attend the friendly football match between the two countries on Saturday.
With around three million people with Turkish roots in Germany, such encounters are always stressful, but now the risk was considered too great.
“There was a fear that there would be anti-Israel chants,” Yasar said. “It is unlikely that Scholz would want to see it with him. At other times it would have been a nice gesture.”
Reporting by Thomas Escritt. Editing by Alexandra Hudson
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