Germany hopeful relations with Turkey can normalize

BERLIN / AP

Germany’s foreign minister expressed cautious optimism on Wednesday that Berlin and Ankara may begin to slowly reel diplomatic relations back to normal, following an escalation of tensions that culminated with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accusing Germany of “Nazi practices.”
Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said talks at a Berlin hotel over breakfast with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, the first face-to-face official meeting since the diplomatic crisis began last week, were “good, honest and friendly, but also hard and contentious.”
Over the past week, German municipalities have canceled several events in which Turkish Cabinet ministers had planned to address rallies in Germany in support of a national referendum on constitutional reform that would give Erdogan more powers. Officials have cited issues of overcrowding and fire safety, among other things.
Some rallies have gone ahead, most recently with Cavusoglu himself addressing a crowd in Hamburg late Tuesday night, though not at the venue initially planned.
Germany’s federal government has expressed increasing irritation over Turkish officials using Germany as a campaign platform, though it emphasized that it wasn’t involved in blocking the rallies and couldn’t intercede with the municipalities that did so. About 1.4 million people of Turkish descent living in Germany are eligible to vote in the referendum.
Setting the stage for Wednesday’s meeting, Cavusoglu repeated Erdogan’s assertion late Tuesday, saying Germany’s “practices are similar to those of the Nazi era.” “There are lines that should not be crossed, and one of those is the comparison with Nazi Germany,” Gabriel said. Cavusoglu toned down his rhetoric after Wednesday’s meeting, saying only that it seemed Germany was allowing anti-Erdogan campaigners to express their opinions while preventing his supporters from doing so.