“The new conflict between Italy and Germany over immigration brings back to the fore the fundamental differences that have divided Berlin and Rome for years: Italy wants to limit the influx of refugees, while Germany invokes humanitarian priorities”, comments the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung entitled: “And Italy may block asylum reform”. The newspaper notes:

“Private refugee rescue organizations illustrate in the most typical way the political and moral dilemma facing Europe in the age of mass irregular immigration. For Western states of law, abandoning asylum seekers at sea is not an option. On the other hand, rescuing them indirectly supports traffickers and does not in the least reduce the incentive for migrants to venture across the risky Mediterranean.

Berlin should ask itself whether it is right to put additional burdens on an important EU partner. If the German governing coalition wants rescue in the Mediterranean, it could entrust it to German authorities or at least accept on German soil the rescued, as the Italian Foreign Minister rightly said. But there is an important reason why the government is not doing it: Germany has already reached the limits of its capacity to absorb new immigrants.”

“Mertz should be more careful what he says”

Website tagesschau.de in an article entitled “Mertz should be more careful what he says” observes: “In a televised debate on immigration policy on the Welt channel, the head of the main opposition Friedrich Merz said that ‘the world is going crazy when it sees 300,000 asylum seekers, whose request has been denied, not only to not leave the country, but to receive full benefits, full medical care. They go to the doctor to get their dentures fixed, while German citizens can’t even get an appointment.”

The president of the German conservatives, Friedrich Merz, received criticism from almost all parties for the statements. Criticism also came from Chancellor Olaf Solz, who said in an interview with Southwest Radio SWR: “What Mr. Merz said does not correspond to the legal framework that applies in Germany. I think he should be more careful about what he says,” the social democrat said. politician”.

“What’s left of Armenia”

“Armenians belong to the most fate-stricken peoples in world history,” writes Südeutsche Zeitung in a publication entitled “What’s left of Armenia”.

The German newspaper observes: “Nothing remains of their kingdom in the Caucasus and Anatolia, which flourished in antiquity and the Middle Ages. Ankara still, in the coldest way, to this day does not recognize the genocide against the Armenians during the First World War. And the Armenian state cannot even defend itself, as was shown by the blitzkrieg, with which neighboring Azerbaijan conquered Nagorno-Karabakh. When the exodus of refugees is completed, there will be no Armenian Christians left in the disputed area. A life in tents and containers awaits the approximately 120,000 refugees.

The conflict shows a power shift in the South Caucasus, where Moscow has dominated for decades. Turkey, as an emerging military power, is enforcing its geostrategic interests with the help of Turkey’s “sister nation” Azerbaijan.

The Karabakh war in 2021 served Ankara’s goals. Azerbaijan won the war only thanks to Turkish equipment with drones, aircraft and trainers. Already since then, Ankara and Baku were not only interested in Nagorno-Karabakh. They sought a land corridor from Azerbaijan’s shores on the Caspian Sea to Turkey and its centers of industrial production.

But there is a downside. The Azeri enclave of Nakhchivan, which borders eastern Turkey, has no land connection with Azerbaijan, which exploits vast oil and gas deposits in the Caspian Sea. Now, after the defeat of the Karabakh Armenians, Baku and Ankara will do everything they can to wrest from the weakened Armenians as soon as possible the territories required for the land corridor: either politically or by force.”