The Turkish president, in his own words, intended to discuss with Scholz the possibility of joining efforts for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. And before meeting with the Chancellor, he spoke about the same with the German President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who will pay a visit to Israel in a week.
“I asked him: please, let’s approach the issue from one side, us from the other, and try together to ensure this, so to speak, humanitarian ceasefire,” Erdogan said at a news conference.
But it seems that Berlin is still not willing to accept this proposal. Addressing the Turkish leader, Scholz admitted that they have “different, and sometimes very different, views on the current conflict.” The Chancellor spoke of the need for humanitarian assistance to the population of Gaza, but at the same time highlighted Israel’s right to self-defense and the importance of guaranteeing its security.
“It should not be that the danger of rocket attacks against Israel continues to exist. It is the right to self-defense,” Scholz said, and these words of his may well be considered a justification for future military actions.
Berlin’s position is largely due to historical particularities. Scholz, like his predecessors as chancellor, believes that Germany has a special historical responsibility for Israel’s security. And this responsibility, as Angela Merkel once said, is part of German national interests. However, Turkey feels no such responsibility, something that Erdogan especially highlighted during the meeting in Berlin.
“We have no debts to Israel,” he said, noting that this is what allows Ankara to so freely express its opinion on the conflict. At the same time, according to the Turkish president, those who remain silent about the killings of children and attacks on civilian targets in Gaza are “inside the psychology of guilt.”
“As a Christian, aren’t you worried about churches being bombed? Why is there no reaction? You must show a reaction,” Erdogan demanded in response to a question from one of the journalists. But the demand was rather purely rhetorical. The leader of Turkey, judging by his statements, understands perfectly why Berlin does not talk about what is happening in Gaza.
And the Turkish president probably also understands that it will be very difficult to agree on joint actions towards a ceasefire with Berlin. However, as documents recently published in the media demonstrate, in internal meetings the German government evaluates the situation and the actions of the Israeli army much more harshly and realistically than in public. It is therefore possible that Berlin will follow Erdogan’s proposal and try to influence Israel, although it is unlikely to be particularly persistent in doing so.
However, despite all the differences over the Middle East conflict, Turkey and Germany have a fairly strong mutual interest on other issues. Ankara, for example, as the Turkish Defense Minister said on the eve of Erdogan’s visit to Berlin, wants to buy 40 Eurofighter fighters and for this it needs Berlin’s consent. This, in turn, wants Ankara to renew the refugee agreement signed in 2016. At the same time, as Scholz and Erdogan said during a press conference, both sides are not against continuing negotiations on Turkey’s accession to the EU. For now, however, all of these issues are overshadowed by events in Gaza, and the Middle East conflict generally affects combatants almost directly. Some politicians in Berlin are now demanding that arms exports to Turkey be limited because of its leaders’ anti-Israel stance. It is true that Erdogan responded to these demands quite calmly: “There are many countries that produce fighter aircraft. And it is not just Germany.”
