Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan thanked Germany’s Olaf Scholz for his assist in advancing a defence contract following talks in Istanbul on Saturday, though the pair remained starkly at odds over the Center East disaster.
The German chancellor arrived on Friday evening for his first go to since March 2022 with tensions within the Center East excessive on the agenda alongside migration and different bilateral points.
“We count on all political actors to take the initiative and put a cease to Israel’s aggressive insurance policies,” mentioned Erdogan, denouncing “the genocide carried out by Israel within the Palestinian territories and the assaults in Lebanon”.
However Scholz mentioned Germany didn’t settle for the claims that there had been a genocide and insisted that Israel had a proper to defend itself from assault.
“Germany doesn’t think about… that the accusation of genocide is reputable and justified,” he mentioned, calling for a ceasefire and the discharge of hostages held by Gaza’s ruling Hamas motion.
Turkey’s relations with Germany — dwelling to Europe’s largest Turkish diaspora of three million individuals — are delicate and Berlin has voiced considerations over the state of human rights and democracy underneath Erdogan.
The Israel-Hamas battle has additional strained ties, with Scholz and Erdogan clashing over the battle in Berlin in November.
Erdogan is a fierce critic of Israel’s navy marketing campaign in Gaza and its current push into Lebanon, however Berlin is a powerful supporter of Israel and has defended its proper to self-defence.
– Eurofighter progress –
Regardless of their variations, Erdogan acknowledged Scholz’s efforts to raise German restrictions on defence gross sales to Turkey, notably Ankara’s need to purchase 40 Eurofighter Typhoons.
“We want to go away behind the previous difficulties within the context of the provision of defence business merchandise and develop our cooperation,” mentioned Erdogan, expressing his “appreciation” for Scholz’s efforts to search out options to the problems.
The Eurofighter Typhoons are constructed by a four-nation consortium grouping Germany, Britain, Spain and Italy. Though London is main the talks with events, any of the 4 nations can veto a sale.
Final 12 months, Ankara mentioned it was eager to amass Eurofighter jets however the talks have been gradual to get off the bottom, largely due to Berlin’s opposition to Turkey’s stance on the Gaza battle.
“Turkey is a member of NATO and that is why we all the time take selections that result in concrete deliveries,” Scholz mentioned.
“There are particular tasks which can be simply getting began… one which the UK authorities is taking ahead and for which negotiations have now begun,” he added, referring to the London-led negotiations with Ankara over the Eurofighter jets.
Talking to journalists in Brussels on Thursday, he mentioned that Berlin was in favour of the talks.
In keeping with the German weekly Der Spiegel, Berlin not too long ago authorised main arms deliveries to Ankara, together with anti-aircraft missiles value a number of hundred million euros.
This marks a transparent change of route, after Germany drastically decreased its arms exports following the Turkish offensive in Syria in 2016.
– Turkey’s door ‘open’ –
Commerce relations between Germany and Turkey have now reached $50 billion, Erdogan mentioned on Saturday, expressing hope to extend that determine “to $60 billion”.
On the migration difficulty, Erdogan mentioned there have been at the moment round 3.5 million Syrian refugees in Turkey and that Ankara wouldn’t shut the door to them.
“Our door has been open for refugees coming from Syria. It’s nonetheless open… (and) for many who come from Lebanon,” he mentioned.
Scholz thanked Erdogan for Turkey’s efforts to assist sort out migration and mentioned Germany would proceed to assist Ankara with the inflow of migrants coming from Syria.
