German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who arrived in İstanbul on Monday for a three-day visit to Turkey, was met by pro-Palestinian protestors who slammed his country’s support for Israel over its war on Gaza, German and Turkish media outlets reported.
Some 50 protestors shouted slogans such as “Murderer Germany” and “Genocide supporters” in Turkish as Steinmeier, along with İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, was visiting the historic Sirkeci train station from where thousands of Turkish guest workers set out for Germany starting in the 1960s.
One of the protestors carried a placard that featured a Steinmeier photo next to pictures of Adolf Hitler and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It read, “No difference!” One rally participant chanted “Free Palestine.”
Security forces intervened, resulting in scuffles with the demonstrators. The protest lasted a few minutes and was peaceful. Steinmeier and İmamoğlu continued their tour despite the protests. Turkish media reports said some demonstrators were detained.
Germany’s strong support for Israel in the wake of its ongoing war in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza is met with great resentment by the Turkish people.
When Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited Berlin in November, he suggested that Germany supported Israel in the Gaza war out of guilt over the Holocaust and drew a contrast with Turkey, which he said was able to speak without bias.
“The Israeli-Palestinian war should not be evaluated from a psychology of indebtedness. I speak freely because we don’t owe Israel anything,” Erdoğan said at a joint news conference with Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
“Those who feel indebted to Israel cannot speak freely. We did not go through the Holocaust, we don’t have such a situation, because our respect for humanity is different,” the Turkish president said, referring to systematic killing of 6 million Jews and 5 million other victims during World War II by Nazi Germany.
Scholz did not respond directly to Erdoğan’s remarks but restated Germany’s commitment to Israel’s right to defend itself.
Steinmeier’s first visit to Turkey as president comes shortly after Erdoğan hosted Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in İstanbul on Saturday.
Erdoğan describes Hamas militants, who launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, as “liberators” fighting for their homeland although the group is recognized as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel.
Steinmeier praises Turkish migrants
During his visit to Sirkeci train station, Steinmeier praised the contribution of Turkish migrants to the development of the German Federal Republic. “They helped build our country, they made it strong, and they belong at the heart of our society,” he said at the train station.
Around 3 million people with Turkish roots live in Germany, forming the largest Turkish diaspora overseas.
Germany has become a “country with a migration background,” said Steinmeier, using a commonly used word to refer to migrants in the country. “This train station stands for the close connection between our two countries. When we celebrate the 75th birthday of our Federal Republic in a month, we will do so with the knowledge that the millions of stories of the Turkish-German immigrants are part of our history.”
The Federal Republic of Germany will celebrate its 75th birthday on May 23.
On the second day of his visit on Tuesday, when Turkey marks Children’s Day, Steinmeier will visit a shelter for Turkey’s earthquake victims and a school in Gaziantep, which was among the provinces struck by two powerful earthquakes last year.
The earthquakes on February 6, 2023, which devastated 11 provinces in Turkey’s south and southeast, left more than 53,000 people dead and hundreds of thousands injured or displaced.
Germany was among the first countries that sent search and rescue teams to Turkey along with millions of euros in donations for the earthquake victims.
Steinmeier’s meeting with his Turkish counterpart, Erdoğan, will take place in Ankara on the last day of his visit, where he will also tour Ankara University and the mausoleum of Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier met with İstanbul’s popular opposition mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, on the first day of his visit to Turkey on April 22, 2024. (Photo: X)
There were comments on social media that the sequence of Steinmeier’s meetings with İmamoğlu and Erdoğan show that İmamoğlu is seen as the new leader of Turkey who will succeed Erdoğan.
İmamoğlu, seen as Erdoğan’s strongest political rival, was re-elected mayor in the local elections held on March 31 from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).
Steinmeier visit to Turkey takes place on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Germany and Turkey.