Chancellor Merkel will travel to Istanbul next week. The topics of the meeting with Turkish President Erdogan have already been decided.
Angela Merkel (CDU) will visit Turkey at the end of next week. As government spokesman Stephen Seibert announced on Friday, the chancellor will likely be among others at the meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on October 16. immigration And the reception of refugees – especially from Syria – in Turkey. Potential issues could also arise from Turkey’s role as a partner in NATO.
Turkey from the point of view Federal government Seibert stressed that he is an “important and close partner.” Therefore, especially when there are differences of opinion, it is important to keep talking and, if necessary, to express criticism directly. This was always the case in the past.
The federal government’s commissioner for human rights, Barbel Koffler, and the French ambassador for human rights, Delphine Burrion, on Thursday criticized the years of imprisonment of cultural promoter Osman Kavala. They called on Turkey to “fully comply with its international obligations and immediately implement the decision of the European Court of Human Rights calling for the immediate release of Osman Kavala.”
