German Chancellor Angela Merkel leads Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to the lectern for a statement following a ceremony to celebrate 50 years of Turkish guest workers in Germany on November 2, 2011. (Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty Images)[/caption]With the EU opening a new chapter in Turkey’s accession negotiations last week, three years after the last chapter was opened, Turkey will now be looking at ways to improve its sour relations with Germany. The Germans are key players in the EU, and if it wants to be part of that “ever-closer union” Turkey now has little choice but to make a strong move to improve ties with the country.
Germany has long opposed full EU membership for Turkey, and the relationship has been rocky in recent years, slowing Turkey’s EU progress. In June, the resumption of negotiations was delayed after German Chancellor Angela Merkel convinced other EU members to block the reopening of membership talks following the Gezi Park protests.
A series of unfortunate events involving Germany’s Turkish population have also contributed significantly to the deterioration in the relationship between the two countries. Back in February 2008, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited the scene of a deadly blaze that had killed nine Turkish immigrants in the German city of Ludwigshafen. A few days earlier, Erdoğan warned that a shadow would be cast over the existing friendship between Turkey and Germany if the fire was found to be the result of a racially motivated arson attack. Turkish newspapers were quick to point the finger at far-right extremist groups for starting the blaze. Turkey’s relations with Germany were severely damaged in the wake of the incident as both countries swapped criticism and rumor.
A week after the fire in Ludwigshafen, Erdoğan delivered a speech to 20,000 supporters of Turkish descent who had gathered in the Cologne Arena to hear him speak. The prime minister told his audience that Turkish people in Germany should reject cultural assimilation, which he claimed amounted to a “crime against humanity.” His words caused outrage among many politicians in Germany, where a great deal of importance is placed on the integration of minority groups into German society.
It quickly looked as though Erdoğan’s speech had created another obstacle to Turkey’s aspirations for EU membership, including among members of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union. While the German chancellor and the Turkish prime minister held a joint minute of silence for the fire victims, Merkel also remarked that she and Erdoğan would “have to further discuss” his understanding of integration. One of her party’s top members in the Bundestag went even further, criticizing the Turkish leader for what he said was Turkey trying to “conduct domestic policy” on German soil.
Yet Erdoğan seemed unfazed when he once again visited Germany in 2011, telling a Turkish crowd: “Our children must learn German . . . but they must first learn good Turkish.” His comments only further aggravated some of the already exasperated members of Merkel’s government. In the same year, Erdoğan accused German foundations in Turkey of supporting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which has been listed as a terrorist organization by the EU.
Then earlier this year, another fire killed eight people with Turkish backgrounds in the Stuttgart suburb of Backnang, in a tragedy that German officials say appeared to be the result of an electrical malfunction. But immigrant groups in Germany and Turkish officials have not been fully convinced due to previous attacks on Turkish people in Germany that proved to be racially motivated.
Following Erdoğan’s ongoing attempts to pose as a representative of nearly 3 million German Turks, a German court decided not to allocate seats for the Turkish media to cover the trial of a member of Germany’s National Socialist Underground (NSU), a neo-Nazi terrorist cell, that began in May this year. The NSU is alleged to have murdered ten people, of which eight were of Turkish origin. The Turkish ambassador and human rights commissioner for the Turkish parliament were also denied reserved seats in the courtroom. However, by the start of the trial in May the court was ordered to redistribute the seats to eventually include four reserved seats for the Turkish press.
The ups and downs between Erdoğan’s Turkey and Merkel’s Germany seem to be inevitable, but with the opening of another chapter in Turkey’s EU accession process they now appear to be on an up. Turkey’s chief EU negotiator, Egemen Bağış, has certainly changed his tune. In June, he claimed that Merkel faced the same fate as French President Nicolas Sarkozy if she continued her election campaign with anti-Turkey moves. Merkel, however, won the elections for the third time, which led Bağış to say: “Turkish–German relations are a privileged partnership today.” At least he has realized the importance of having Germany on its side.
Germany’s recent U-turn to allow the recommencement of Turkey’s EU negotiations signals new hope for improved relations. While other EU countries—notably France—also hold longstanding objections to Turkish membership, Germany clearly has one of the loudest voices in the 28-member crowd. Turkey would do well to keep its relations with the European powerhouse in mind as it continues to negotiate the acquis.
All views expressed in this blog post are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, The Majalla magazine.
