No. 79 February 2008
 
 

OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION
PRIME MINISTER ERDOĞAN IN GERMANY
 
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan arrived on February 7 at an apartment building in Ludwigshafen, Germany where nine Turks had tragically died three days earlier. Nine people, including five children, were killed in the fire. The premier was accompanied by State Minister Said Yazıcıoğlu and Germany's Rhineland-Palatinate State Prime Minister Kurt Beck. During Erdoğan's visit, a group of local Turks gathered at a park in front of the building to protest the incident. Erdoğan also visited Turks injured in the blaze, and called for a thorough investigation. "Both the German police and the firefighters did their best to save lives in the disaster but we're expecting a thorough investigation," Erdoğan told a crowd gathered outside the apartment building. "Our grief is great; as a nation, our grief is great. But our German friends I've spoken to are also grieving," Erdoğan said.
 
At a joint press conference the next day with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Erdoğan said the German-Turkish friendship is not easily harmed. "I am visiting Germany just after a saddening incident occurred in Ludwigshafen," he added. Erdoğan said an investigation will bring to light the cause of the fire. On bilateral relations, Erdoğan said Germany is Turkey's friend, ally and close partner, and bilateral trade volume reached 22 billion euros at the end of 2007. Erdoğan said there are about 3,000 German entrepreneurs in Turkey, and 60,000 Turks have become entrepreneurs in Germany, and called on German businessmen to join nuclear power plant tenders in Turkey. "We politicians have to do our best for integration, leaving aside issues like language, religion, race and nationalism, and ensure integration," he said. Merkel said for her part that Erdoğan's visiting the scene of the fire was an important thing. "This incident should be investigated, and our target is adjustment. We should not be hasty, and should refrain from extreme reactions," she said. Merkel said her government would remain loyal to the commitments made to Turkey in its bid for EU membership. "The defining principle for the federal government is pacta sunt servanda (one must keep one's contracts), and it will stay that way," Merkel said. "We want to add predictability to Turkey's EU accession process and look at it through different angles." Erdoğan received German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on February 8, and then proceeded from Berlin to Munich. There he met with Guenter Beckstein, minister-president of the state of Bavaria. He then held a meeting with Munich Mayor Christian Ude.
 
Speaking to the 44th Munich Conference on Security Policy in Germany on February 9, Erdoğan brought up the 2004 referendum on the Annan plan. "Kofi Annan (then UN secretary-general) prepared his report on the referendum in 2004. But since that day, the UN Security Council has yet to consider the report or make a decision," Erdoğan complained. He said the report has been awaiting action for four years, although such reports spend at most for one year at the council. "Why is it still pending?" he asked. "It's on ice. There is still delaying on the Cyprus question. I would like to urge the UN Security Council to take action on this matter." Erdoğan also reaffirmed that Turkey wants to become a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council and asked UN countries for their votes. Erdoğan decried how some EU leaders used expressions like "privileged partnership" concerning Turkey's EU accession process. "We find such expressions improper. One can't change the rules in the middle of the game," he said. "We believe that Turkey – as a stable partner – should have an influential role in the decision-making process of EU security issues." Turkey aims to become a full member of the EU, Erdoğan stated. He added, "Turkey is determined to do what is required for the accession process." Turkey has supported the peace process between Palestine and Israel from the very beginning and it still continues well-meaning initiatives, Erdoğan said. It is time to get concrete results on solving the problems of the Middle East, he stated. Erdoğan said NATO has become an organization serving world stability and security and Turkey would continue to help the bloc. Erdoğan met with NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and Macedonian President Branko Crvenkovski on February 9. Erdoğan had meetings with Scheffer and Crvenkovski at the 44th Munich Conference on Security Policy. Erdoğan said that Turkey has become a symbol of change in its region and that an EU with Turkey would become a real global actor. "Improving Turkey's value isn't limited to the Middle East only. Turkey has become a top partner and stable symbol of positive change not only in the Balkans, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean regions, but also in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Central Asia and Africa," Erdoğan wrote in a guest column in German daily Suddeutsche Zeitung. Erdoğan said Turkey's EU accession would help strengthen its role, spread democratic values and would resound in the Middle East and other countries. "At the same time, together with Turkey, the EU will become a real global actor, as it has dreamed," Erdoğan said. On Iraq, Erdoğan said Turkey had assumed an active role for the preservation of Iraq's territorial integrity as well as peace and stability in the region, adding that Turkish had begun $3.5 billion in construction projects in Iraq despite difficulties. Erdoğan also said that Turkey has very good relations with Arab countries and Israel, adding that it would use this position to support the Middle East peace process. Erdoğan met with Cologne Mayor Fritz Schramma and addressed local Turks on February 10. Erdoğan said Turks who had settled in Germany 47 years ago contributed to Germany's development and helped it become a strong country in the world.