Ministers pledge to improve ties
GERMANY’S and Turkey’s foreign ministers last Saturday agreed to pull out all the stops to improve ties that have soured due to disputes over Ankara’s post-coup crackdown and the arrests of German citizens in Turkey, but they stressed differences remain.
Meeting in an ornate imperial palace in central Germany, the pair said they were keen to make amends after falling out as Ankara rounded up suspected supporters of a failed 2016 coup, a comedian mocked Turkey’s president and a German-Turkish journalist was detained without charge.
German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel pointed to historic links between the countries including the role Turkish guest workers played in rebuilding Germany after World War Two, Turkey’s hospitality in taking in German refugees during the Nazi era and the three-million-strong Turkish community here.
“We’ve both made it our business to do everything we can to overcome the difficulties there have been in GermanTurkish relations and to find more common ground in the future by remembering everything that binds us together,” Mr Gabriel said.
In a sign of recovering relations, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said the Nato allies believed they could overcome recent escalations in tension through dialogue.
Mr Çavuşoğlu said Turkey and Germany shared similar views on conflict-hit Middle East countries and they were cooperating on humanitarian issues like migration.
During a working lunch last Saturday, he and Mr Gabriel discussed steps they can take together in future, Mr Çavuşoğlu said.
But the pair acknowledged areas of disagreement. Mr Çavuşoğlu said one bone of contention was whether Turkey should be allowed to join the European Union, a move that Germany opposes, but he sounded a conciliatory note.
“There is benefit in pushing our disagreements aside and continuing on our path. We should focus on issues that serve as win-win for our countries, like the Customs Union,” he said.
Meanwhile last Friday French President Emmanuel Macron told Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that democratic countries must respect the rule of law in their fight against terrorism as he voiced concerns about the fate of students, teachers and journalists detained by Ankara.
Mr Macron also said after his talks with the Turkish president at the Elysée presidential palace that they had disagreed about human rights.
He added that recent developments in Turkey did not allow for progress in Ankara’s decades-long push to join the European Union.
Discussions should change focus, he said, mentioning the possibility of a “partnership” that would fall short of full membership.
Several deals were signed during Mr Erdoğan’s visit to Paris, including a tentative accord for Turkish Airlines to buy 25 A350-900 aircraft.