Visit to Ankara by EU officials: the conciliating role of the German Chancellor
(illustration) German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
REUTERS / Yasin Bulbul
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
Establishing less conflictual relations with Turkey is the object of the visit of European officials on Tuesday in Ankara.
Among the European heads of state and government, Angela Merkel plays a central role and in recent months has taken a less harsh position with regard to Turkey than, for example, France.
Publicity
Read more
The leaders of the European Union, the President of the Council Charles Michels and the President of the Commission Ursula von der Leyen are this Tuesday in Ankara.
After months of tensions with Turkey, the objective of this mission is to gauge the possibility of returning to a less confrontational relationship with this country and President Erdogan.
►
To read also
: Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel in Ankara to reconnect with Erdogan
German Chancellor Angela Merkel plays a central role in this regard, reports our correspondent in Berlin,
Pascal Thibaut.
"Germany has behaved in a positive and constructive manner in our disputes with Greece", declared the Turkish Defense Minister in a recent interview with the business daily
Handelsblatt
", welcoming the position adopted by the German government during the maritime crisis in the eastern Mediterranean last year.
Unlike Paris, then, Berlin did not choose to openly take sides while
denouncing Ankara's attacks
against the French president.
The
Berlin
think tank
SWP recently summed up: "France perceives Turkey as a strategic rival while Germany sees Ankara as a difficult but unavoidable partner".
►
To read also:
Tensions in the Mediterranean: Macron and Erdogan explain themselves, Greeks and Turks ready to negotiate
The dialogue continues: Angela Merkel and Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke to each other a month ago.
Behind the scenes, Germany is working on a renewal of the
migration pact
between the European Union and Turkey concluded five years ago.
Already at the time, Berlin had played a leading role in finding a solution to the massive influx of refugees to Europe, starting with Germany.
Angela Merkel's less confrontational position can also be explained by the presence of a substantial Turkish diaspora in Germany and the importance of bilateral economic relations.
A
network of smugglers
operating between the two countries was recently dismantled.
But if they constitute the first minority of foreign origin in Germany, the Turks are far from constituting a homogeneous community.
Newsletter
Receive all international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
Germany
Turkey
Angela Merkel