Merkel’s Turkey visit: an impetus to EU ties?
Murat Yetkin writes: Merkel might present a list of German citizens who are either in prison or banned from leaving Turkey, probably knowing that a similar list could be presented by Erdoğan about the extradition of certain names in Germany who were granted shelter following the 2016 military coup attempt, indicted to be masterminded by the U.S.-resident Islamist preacher Fethullah Gülen.
Duvar English
Ahead of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's visit to Istanbul to meet Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan, journalist Murat Yetkin penned a piece to analyze possible impact of the visit over Turkey-EU ties. Yetkin argued that two leaders share a common goal of keeping Turkey anchored to the EU, although they have different reasons.
In his piece Yetkin summarized Erdoğan's expectations as the revival of the high level political dialogue, more cooperation against terrorism, more support for control of immigration and visa flexibilities. Merkel is likely to open up the deficiencies regarding the quality of democracy in Turkey, the need of more reforms, especially in the field of judiciary, to enable a new convergence between Turkey and the EU, Yetkin added.
"Merkel might also present a list of German citizens who are either in prison or banned from leaving Turkey, probably knowing that a similar list could be presented by Erdoğan about the extradition of certain names in Germany who were granted shelter following the 2016 military coup attempt, indicted to be masterminded by the U.S.-resident Islamist preacher Fethullah Gülen," Yetkin wrote.
Yetkin's piece in full can be reached here.