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TURKEY-GERMANY-POLITICS-DIPLOMACY
Erdogan’s Germany visit exposes splits despite warmer tone
ISTANBUL, Oct 1, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
showed a more conciliatory tone on a hugely sensitive visit to Germany but
both sides still have daunting task ahead to rebuild relations and trust
battered by a succession of disputes.
Erdogan’s full state visit came just one-and-a-half-months after Turkey
endured a currency crisis which saw the lira plunge some 40 percent in a spat
with the United States that highlighted the importance of Ankara’s economic
ties to Europe.
Turkey’s relations with Germany — and other key EU states — had hit
historic lows in the aftermath of the 2016 failed coup as Berlin took issue
with the scope of the remorseless crackdown that also caught up German
nationals.
Interpretations of the controversial visit varied wildly in Turkey and
Germany, with Erdogan boasting it was a hugely successful but the
conservative German press complaining the red carpet treatment brought
nothing but hassle and expense.
Erdogan on Saturday in Cologne also inaugurated a new mosque — seen as a
symbol of the integration of three million people of Turkish origin in
Germany — although the resonance was undermined by the absence of key German
politicians.
“At a critical period, we made an extremely productive, extremely
successful visit,” Erdogan said.
– ‘Repair the damage’ –
Erdogan negotiated a potentially thorny news conference with Chancellor
Angela Merkel without any major provocation, smiling when security bundled
out a journalist wearing a T-shirt with the slogan “freedom for journalists”.
“Both sides are willing to move forward, out of the stalemate,” Ilke
Toygur, analyst at the Elcano Royal Institute in Madrid, told AFP.
She said Turkey was particularly keen on “repairing the damage” after
Ankara’s relations with Washington entered a state of crisis over the summer,
but Germany and Europe wanted to see “concrete steps” to relieve tensions.
While a resumption of accession negotiations for Turkey’s moribund EU bid
was not on the table, some improvements — such as a modernisation of a
Customs Union — could take place after European parliament elections in May
2019, said Toygur.
Merkel also announced that she planned to take part later in October in an
Istanbul summit hosted by Erdogan on the crisis in Syria which also aims to
include French President Emmanuel Macron and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
“The visit’s first achievement is that it took place. It therefore marks
the beginning of a road towards detente,” Marc Pierini, visiting scholar at
Carnegie Europe and a former EU ambassador to Turkey, told AFP.
– ‘Arduous road’ –
Yet it will take more to overcome months of tensions and the magnitude of
the challenge was underlined in a strikingly frank speech by German President
Frank-Walter Steinmeier as he hosted Erdogan for the welcoming state dinner
late Thursday.
Dispensing with the usual diplomatic pleasantries, Steinmeier expressed
concern over Germans, union activists, lawyers, journalists and politicians
jailed in Turkey, telling Erdogan: “We cannot simply gloss over this issue.”
Steinmeier said the “strong emotions” the visit aroused in Germany were a
reflection of tensions that have yet to be overcome and warned: “A single
visit is not enough to restore normality.”
Erdogan hit back at Steinmeier in Turkish media, saying the president’s
comments were “not very appropriate” and adding Turkey would not behave the
same towards “a guest”.
Almut Moller, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign
Relations, said the outcome was “far away from a detente” with the
deterioration in Turkey’s rule of law and human rights still of “great
concern to Berlin”.
But she told AFP: “Germany has no interest in losing Turkey as a partner to
work with” and wanted to see Ankara overcome its economic difficulties.
Pierini said the visit “illustrated sharp divergences on rule of law,
especially freedom of speech and freedom of dissent.
“It will be a long and arduous road toward normalisation,” he said.
For many in Germany, the opening of the Cologne mosque was a missed
opportunity, with the Turkish president preferring the chance to bask in the
limelight rather than promoting cross-community harmony.
The mosque opening “left behind a pile of shards in the German-Turkish
relationship which can only be swept up with a lot of effort,” said the
president of the Turkish Community in Germany (TGD), Gokay Sofuoglu.
But he expressed satisfaction that “both sides made a cautious attempt at
rapprochement.”
BSS/AFP/MRI/2136 HRS