Chancellor Angela Merkel vows continuity on last visit to Erdogan

Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday vowed continuity in Germany’s relations with Turkey that included both cooperation and criticism of Ankara as she paid her final visit to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Merkel and Erdogan developed complex but close relations over the German chancellor’s 16- year term that navigated the perils of Turkey’s tumultuous ties with the West.

Their personal bond was instrumental in helping Europe manage a refugee crisis in 2016 and calm simmering tensions in the east Mediterranean in 2020.

Merkel also helped iron out some of the difficulties that have crept into Erdogan’s relations with Washington and French President Emmanuel Macron.

The two leaders had lunch and private talks in a presidential villa overlooking the Bosphorus on the latest leg of Merkel’s parting foreign tour.

“I have always said that our collaboration was very good in the years that I worked with Mr Erdogan,” Merkel told reporters after the talks.

“I criticized Turkey on the issue of human rights and individual freedoms. We looked for solutions. We could have differences, but we depended on each other,” she said.

The 67- year- old German leader said her “advice” to Turkey today was to expect “the same thing for the coming government in Germany.”

“The relationship between Turkey and Germany, with its negative and positive sides, will go on. It will be recognized by the next government,” she said in a statement.

Erdogan referred to Merkel as his “dear friend” twice during the closing media event.

But he also hinted at the difficulties Turkey might have in promoting its interests after Merkel formally gives way to a new coalition government taking shape in Berlin following elections in September.

“If there had been no coalition government, [ Germany’s] relations with Turkey might have been easier. Of course, it is not easy to work with a coalition government,” Erdogan said.

Erdogan headed Turkey as prime minister when Merkel became the first woman to head Germany in 2005.