German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will visit Turkey next week to meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, with the escalating conflict in the Middle East and migration on the agenda, Agence France-Presse reported, citing German officials on Friday.
Scholz will have talks with Erdoğan on October 19 in İstanbul, followed by a press conference, government spokesman Wolfgang Buechner told a media briefing in Berlin.
The German chancellor last visited Turkey in March 2022, a few months after taking office.
“The war in Ukraine will be the subject of the talks, as will the situation in the Middle East. Migration and bilateral and economic policy issues will also be on the agenda,” Buechner said.
Germany’s relations are sensitive with Turkey, a fellow NATO member. Germany is home to Europe’s largest Turkish diaspora of some 3 million people.
German officials have in recent years raised hackles in Turkey by criticizing what they see as growing authoritarianism under Erdoğan.
The outbreak of the Israel-Gaza war in Gaza has further strained ties.
Erdoğan has frequently attacked Israel over its actions in Gaza, labelling them “genocide.” Berlin meanwhile is a strong supporter of Israel and has defended the country’s right to self-defense, although it has also increasingly called for restraint.
When the Turkish leader visited Germany last year, he traded barbs with Scholz over the conflict.
The war was sparked by Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
According to the health ministry in Gaza, 42,065 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, mostly civilians.
There have also been tensions between Berlin and Ankara over immigration.
Berlin announced at the end of September that it had agreed a plan with Turkey under which Berlin would step up deportations of failed Turkish asylum seekers — only for Turkey to swiftly deny any such deal had been struck.
The Scholz government has been under increased pressure after a series of violent crimes and extremist attacks committed by asylum seekers.
When it comes to Ukraine, Germany has strongly supported Kyiv in its fight against Moscow since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 and is Ukraine’s second-biggest military backer.
Turkey has sought to balance ties between its two Black Sea neighbors, Russia and Ukraine, since the outbreak of the war. Ankara has sent drones to Ukraine but shied away from Western-led sanctions on Moscow.