The visit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the German capital on the afternoon-evening of next Friday, November 17, was confirmed on Friday morning in the government briefing in Berlin. He will meet with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the Bellevue Presidential Palace, and immediately after that he will have bilateral contacts with Chancellor Olaf Scholz, with no joint press conference apparently expected. It will be the first official visit of the Turkish president to Berlin in five years.

As Deputy Government Spokesperson Christiane Hoffmann stated, for Germany it is an “important visit”. Although Kr. Hoffmann was sparing and careful in her wording, bilateral German-Turkish issues and the whole range of current regional policy issues are expected to be discussed with an emphasis as expected on the situation in the Middle East and of course in the shadow of Erdogan’s open support for Hamas.

It remains unknown whether the Turkish president will attend the Germany-Turkey soccer match on November 18 at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium. It is certain, however, that Chancellor Olaf Solz will not be there, which is categorically denied.

NATO support for Erdogan

However, despite the irritation caused by Erdoğan’s statements of support for Hamas and against Israel, it seems that in the last few hours, the tones are being tried to drop. This was also evident from yesterday’s statements by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the joint press conference with Olaf Stolz at the chancellery.

Referring to Turkey and its attitude towards Hamas, he said that “it is never easy when there are different opinions within the Alliance” however “this does not affect what we do and what we do not do in this particular conflict”. However, the NATO Secretary General wanted to support Turkey, saying that the attitude of the North Atlantic Alliance towards Ankara is not affected by the issue of Sweden’s accession, after all, the issue has already gone through the Turkish parliament.

However, according to today’s poll by the YouGov Institute on behalf of the German news agency dpa, one in two Germans, i.e. 45% of respondents, believe that the German chancellor should withdraw his invitation to the Turkish president because of his support for the terrorist organization Hamas.

It will be preceded by the visit of Mitsotakis

In the meantime, as was known, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is expected in the German capital on Monday 13 and until Tuesday 14 November. A planned visit with a rich program. On Monday, he is expected to speak at a special event on Greek-German relations after the difficult years of the crisis at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation together with the leader of the Christian Democrats, Friedrich Merz – whose party is leading the polls with 30%.

According to the announcements made by the chancellery at Friday’s government briefing, immediately afterwards he is expected to attend the dinner hosted by the President of the European Council Charles Michel with Chancellor Olaf Soltz at the chancellery premises, in the presence of Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulidis. The heads of state and government of Austria, Belgium, Hungary and Lithuania are also invited to the dinner.

The Greek prime minister is expected to meet the German chancellor on Tuesday morning at the chancellery, followed by a joint press conference early in the afternoon. On the agenda, according to Christiane Hoffmann, there will be issues of a bilateral and European nature as well as broader security issues.