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They have opposing views on Israel's war with Hamas and conflicting stances on Moscow after its intervention in Ukraine, but when the leaders of Germany and Turkey meet in Berlin on Friday, they will have strong economic and electoral pushes for talked about.
President Tayyip Erdogan's first visit to Germany since 2020 comes ahead of Turkish local elections, where his party hopes to win the municipalities of Ankara and Istanbul.
The prospect of better access to the European Union market and visa liberalization would be a huge boon to Turkish voters, who are grappling with high inflation and a deep economic crisis gripping Turkey.
Erdogan will also need Chancellor Olaf Scholz's blessing if he wants to buy the 40 Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets he announced on Thursday. Germany, through the Airbus company, is a partner country in the consortium that produces the planes. For Scholz, who heads a tripartite coalition, Ankara's role in curbing migration to the EU makes it an indispensable partner.
In a sign of the importance of the visit, Chancellor Scholz tried not to respond directly to Mr Erdogan's harsh calls for Israel's war against Hamas, in which thousands of Palestinians have lost their lives. Hamas militants killed over 1,200 people in the bloody October 7 attack on Israel and took over 240 hostages. On Wednesday, while President Erdogan called Hamas a "liberation organization", Mr Scholz said that "the accusations leveled against Israel were absurd".
But Erdogan hardened his stance further on Wednesday, labeling Israel a "terrorist state" with "unlimited support" from the West, and suggesting the situation could spiral out of control. Germany has expressed strong solidarity with Israel, while demanding a focus on mitigating the impact of the war on the civilian population of Gaza. The Turkish President's visit to Germany comes a day after the Turkish parliament's foreign affairs committee postponed the vote on Sweden's NATO membership, postponing the expansion of the alliance after an 18-month wait./ VOA
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