Berlin – AFP
On Friday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz receives Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in a visit that raises great controversy in Germany, after Erdogan’s harsh criticism of Israel against the backdrop of its war in Gaza.
The Turkish President’s plane will land at Berlin Airport “at noon,” after which he will meet his counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, before heading to the Chancellery building to hold talks with Schulz, followed by dinner, after which he will depart for Turkey.
Erdogan and Schulz are scheduled to hold a “meeting with the press” before their meeting, and this is the Turkish president’s first visit to Germany since 2020.
Der Spiegel newspaper indicated that Germany “has no interest in a dispute (with Erdogan), while Berlin and Ankara have become close recently,” after a period of intense tension.
This also comes from the fact that the number one economy in Europe hosts a large Turkish community of about 2.9 million people, including 1.5 million voters, most of whom support Erdogan.
Germany and the European Union as a whole also need to renew an agreement signed with Turkey in 2016 aimed at containing the arrival of migrants, while Europe is witnessing a new wave of arrivals, from Afghanistan or Syria, which raises the popularity of the extreme right in opinion polls, especially in Germany.
Under this agreement, Turkey retains the migrants, most of whom are Syrian, in exchange for a large financial contribution.
In the Russian war in Ukraine that began on February 24, 2022, Erdogan played the role of architect of the agreement that guaranteed the export of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea, before Moscow objected to the method of its implementation.
Today, Western countries believe that it can play a role in avoiding escalation of the conflict in the Middle East, which makes the dialogue “more important and more urgent,” according to German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.
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2023-11-17 11:39:47
