Bilateral strains overshadow frosty Erdogan German visit

German chancellor Angela Merkel has admitted that “profound differences” remain in Berlin’s relationship with Ankara, with mutual declarations of goodwill unable to thaw a frosty state visit by the Turkish president.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan leaves Germany on Saturday after a trip marred by high security and protests that speak volumes about the strained bilateral relationship.

A critical Turkish journalist exiled in Berlin stayed away from Friday’s chancellery press conference – reportedly after the president threatened not to appear. A Hamburg-based Turkish photographer, wearing a T-shirt reading “Press freedom for journalists in Turkey”, was bundled out of the briefing shouting: “I’ve done nothing.”

Exchanging a brief glance, the German and Turkish leaders knew their efforts to accentuate the positive were going nowhere.

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Earlier Dr Merkel stressed their two countries’ close co-operation: Nato ties, joint efforts to combat terrorism, Turkish efforts to stem migration flows to Europe and the 3.5 million-strong Turkish minority in Germany.

“Germany has an interest in an economically stable Turkey,” she said, a nod to its economic crisis and a 40 per cent crash in the Turkish lira.

Mr Erdogan stressed his interest in a closer “win-win” economic co-operation with Germany, going so far as to rescind his 2011 claim that Turks who integrate into German society were committing “genocide”.

Politics and opinion

“No doubt these people will preserve their roots but we also encourage them to integrate into Germany,” he told journalists. Quizzed about his claim a year ago that Germany uses “Nazi methods”, Mr Erdogan declined to comment.

After further critical questions, the press conference was soon dominated by the two countries’ outstanding differences of politics and opinion.

Dr Merkel said Germany remained concerned about Turkish democracy, the rule of law and press freedom and that her government would continue to act for the release of five German citizens held on remand and without charge in Turkish prisons.

“You can rest assured we discuss these cases in a concrete fashion . . . but this could yet take quite a while,” she said.

German intelligence services, she added, still lacked information to follow Turkey in classifying the Gülen movement, alongside the outlawed Kurdish PKK, as a terrorist organisation for its alleged role in the failed 2016 putsch. Turkey blames the US-based cleric, Fethullah Gülen, for the attempted coup in July 2016. Mr Gülen denies involvement.

Mr Erdogan insisted that all those still imprisoned in the aftermath of the coup attempt – about 8,000 police, 5,000 military, 2,400 judges and lawyers and 143 journalists – were detained for good reason. He added that German politicians “don’t have the right to criticise the Turkish system which is independent”.

Attempted coup

Before a grim-faced welcome by German president Frank Walter Steinmeier, Mr Erdogan irritated his hosts by demanding the extradition of dozens of Turkish citizens who have sought asylum in Germany since the coup attempt.

Further irritation is likely on Saturday when he opens a Cologne mosque operated by the organisation Ditib. With close financial and political ties to Ankara, it stands accused by German intelligence of denouncing Turkish community members to Ankara as Gülen supporters.

On Friday evening, during a state banquet for Mr Erdogan and his wife, an estimated 10,000 people were expected to participate in the first – but not the last – “not welcome” demonstration accompanying the visit.

Bilateral relations between Berlin and Ankara have been in crisis for years. Low points include Turkish fury at a Bundestag resolution condemning as genocide the mass murder of Armenians a century ago at the hands of Ottoman forces.

A German satirist’s poem about Mr Erdogan prompted a diplomatic crisis, as did German bans imposed on Turkish politicians canvassing here. The most recent crisis came after German soccer player Mezut Özil posed for a photograph with the president.