President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will pay a visit to Berlin on Nov. 16-17 to meet with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, as well as President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, to discuss the latest developments regarding the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
The leaders will discuss “the entire range of political issues” during a meeting at the chancellery on Friday evening, a German government spokesperson said.
It would be Erdoğan’s first visit to Germany since 2020. Some 3 million people with Turkish roots live in Germany.
Erdoğan’s accusations against Israel have stoked fresh tensions with the European Union.
Indicating that Western countries, which constantly talk about human rights and freedoms and democracy, are watching Israel’s massacres from afar, Erdoğan on Tuesday said: “These countries and organizations are so helpless that they cannot even call for a cease-fire, let alone criticize child murderers. Seventy-three percent of the nearly 11,000 Gazans brutally killed by Israel are women and children.”
Scholz said on Friday that the German government will continue its diplomatic efforts to prevent the Gaza war from turning into a major regional conflict.
“Together with the U.S., our European allies and our partners in the region, we are doing everything we can diplomatically to prevent this from becoming a conflagration,” he said at a military conference in Berlin.
The German government says it bears historical responsibility for the security of Israel due to the country’s Nazi past and crimes committed against Jews.
Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is beginning her Middle East tour on Friday as part of Berlin’s diplomatic efforts to stop further escalation of the crisis.
The conflict escalated dramatically after Hamas carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel on Oct. 7 by firing thousands of rockets and sending hundreds of its members into Israeli towns.
Israel responded by an uninterrupted campaign of air and artillery strikes on Gaza and recently expanded its ground operations to root out Hamas. Civilian infrastructure, including hospitals and refugee camps, were also targeted by the Israeli forces.
At least 10,812 Palestinians, including 4,412 children and 2,918 women, have been killed so far, according to health authorities.
Source: Daily Sabah
