Deutsche Welle predicted a “difficult” meeting a day before the h-moment.
Chancellor of Germany By Olaf Scholz is scheduled to meet the president of Turkey today Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Istanbul.
This is Scholz’s first visit to Turkey in two and a half years.
According to German and Turkish media, the meeting will mainly discuss the conflicts between Israel and extremist organizations in the Middle East, the war in Ukraine and the migration issue.
The meeting also talks about arms exports, as Turkey wants to acquire Eurofighter Typhoon fighters, which are partially manufactured in Germany.
The Middle East is tightening the gap
German of the Deutsche Welle channel a turkish language news website predicted a “difficult” meeting a day before the h-moment in Istanbul.
Erdoğan has been on very different lines with Germany regarding the Gaza conflict and Israel’s attack in Lebanon. Erdoğan has criticized Israel’s actions and even compared the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the dictator of Nazi Germany to Adolf Hitler and characterized Hamas, which Germany considers a terrorist organization, as a group fighting for Islam.
As Israel’s ally, Germany, on the other hand, has supported Israel and said that Israel has the right to defend itself, however, calling on Israel more and more often to curb its attacks.
According to Deutsche Welle’s data, Germany may nevertheless give the green light to Turkey’s desire to acquire 40 Eurofighter Typhoon fighters, but Germany may slow their delivery and limit how Turkey can use the fighters.
Britain, Italy or Spain, which participate in the production of the fighter jets, may also block the deal, but according to Turkish sources who spoke to AFP, the sale of the fighter jets has been held up especially by disagreements over Israel’s actions in the Middle East.
The experts who spoke to the media believed that the fighter jet agreement would eventually come about.
– At the end of the day, both parties need each other both politically, economically and from the point of view of relations between their populations, says the director of the CATS research institute, which focuses on Turkey Hürcan Aslı Aksoy For Deutsche Welle.