
Sunday, July 06, 2008

Relations with Germany

Political relations between Turkey and Germany gained great importance with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit to Germany in September 2003.

Erdogan accompanied by Culture and Tourism Minister Erkan Mumcu met separately with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Foreign Affairs Minister Joschka Fischer and German Christian Democrat Union (CDU) party leader Angela Merkel during his three day official visit to Berlin.

Schroeder said that he approached warmly Turkey's European Union (EU) membership and they supported it. Merkel reiterated that she was in favor of privileged partnership to be given to Turkey instead of full membership and said that they wanted to improve their dialogue with Justice and Development Party (AK Party).

Erdogan explained Turkey's views on EU, foreign policy, human rights and other issues in his speech at a meeting held by Friedrich Ebert Foundation and Turkey Researches Center (TAM).

GERMANY'S SUPPORT TO TURKEY'S EU MEMBERSHIP

German Christian Social Union Party (CSU), a sister party of CDU, reiterated that it was against Turkey's EU membership and said that Turkey's EU membership was not a good perspective for Europe.

CSU officials who defended that Turkey's EU membership would bring some difficulties to economic power of the Union said that they wanted a good partnership with ally Turkey. They also claimed that federal government aroused some expectations which would create disappointment in the end.

Stating that if Turkey became a member of the EU, Turkish citizens would have right to travel freely, CSU officials said that 10 or 15 million migrants could come to Germany. They claimed that neither Germany nor Turkey would get benefit from it and also said that they did not agree with Schroeder who said that Turkey's membership to the Union would be to the benefit of Germany.

Schroeder stressed that Turkey could confide in starting of its EU membership negotiations and said that doors to Turkey would also be open after enlargement of the EU in 2004. Schroeder said that Turkey had a partnership agreement with the EU for 40 years and meetings were being held since then and stated that such a process could not be left aside due to internal political reasons. Schroeder noted that Turkey could have confidence that its EU membership negotiations would be started.

Schroeder added that Turkey's membership would contribute to improvement of security in the Middle East.

VOTERS OF TURKISH ORIGIN

Social Democrat Party (SPD) and Greens nominated candidates of Turkish origin in Germany for deputy elections of the European Parliament which will be held in June 2004.

Vural Oger, businessman of Turkish origin, accepted the offer of being a candidate for EP deputy elections of SPD Secretary General Olaf Scholz with the support of Schroeder. His candidacy was approved in the party assembly of SPD in Bochum.

EP deputy Ozan Ceyhun was also nominated again and his candidacy was approved.

Union 90/Greens party nominated Cem Ozdemir, who was earlier member of Federal German Parliament, as the candidate for deputy elections in EP.

BILATERAL RELATIONS

Bilateral relations between Turkey and Germany were also improved with mutual visits of high-level officials.

German Interior Minister Otto Schily visited Ankara and held some bilateral meetings with Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu. Aksu and Schily discussed extradition of Metin Kaplan, the leader of the Union of Islamic Communities and Societies (ICCB) that was banned in Germany, to Turkey.

National Education Minister Huseyin Celik, Justice Minister Cemil Cicek and Guldal Aksit as tourism minister paid official visits to Germany. State Minister Ali Babacan also attended finance meetings in Berlin.

AK Party deputies also held some meetings in several cities to further improve bilateral relations with deputies of CDU.

Turkish-German Chamber of Trade was set up to further improve commercial relations between Turkey and Germany. Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen's Association (TUSIAD) also opened a representative office in Berlin. Erdogan, and Schily on behalf of Schroeder attended the opening cocktail of the office.

Schroeder also came together with Turkish businessmen and reiterated that they supported Turkey's EU membership.

PROBLEMS

Turkey wanted extradition of Metin Kaplan, son of Cemalledin Kaplan, to the country, but German courts opposed handing over or extraditing him to Turkey claiming that he could be subjected to torture in Turkey. Schily considered the verdict of the courts insufficient and asked Kaplan to be extradited as soon as possible.
Whether or not German soldiers on board Airborne Warning and Control System planes (AWACS) could have mission on Turkish air zone became a main agenda item of Germany after war started in Iraq. German government warned that if Turkey was involved in Iraq war, it would withdraw soldiers on board those planes. However, Germany had to give up its attitude to defend ally Turkey due to reactions of member countries and opposition parties in Germany.

SPORTS

Sinan Samil Sam, the European Heavy Weight Boxing Champion, knocked out Danny Williams, the champion of Britain in Estrel Convention Center in Berlin and preserved his title of European Heavy Weight Boxing Champion.
Sureyya Ayhan of Turkey won women's 1,500-meter race in the Berlin Golden League athletics meeting.

Galatasaray and Besiktas soccer clubs played their matches of European Championship League in Dortmund and Gelsenkirche cities of Germany upon the decision of UEFA. Galatasaray defeated FC Juventus 2-0 in European Champions League, Group D in Dortmund while Besiktas was defeated by Chelsea 0-2.

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