Merkel urges respect for freedom of opinion in Turkey

Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, has urged Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan to respect freedom of opinion amid huge unrest over his plans to transform his country into a presidential democracy.

Dr Merkel’s first visit to the Turkish capital, Ankara, since last year’s failed military coup was a delicate balancing act: demanding respect for democratic values and an end to Mr Erdogan’s crackdown on critics, while urging the president to stick to a European Union refugee-swap pact on which her own political future hangs.

“In a time of far-reaching political change everything must be done to preserve the division of powers, the freedom of opinion and diversity in society,” said Dr Merkel alongside the Turkish president. “Opposition belongs to a democracy and we all experience that every day.”

The trickiness of the two leaders’ relationship is legendary, rooted in Dr Merkel’s doubts that Turkey belongs in the EU. But tricky has become awkward since last year’s failed putsch, after which Mr Erdogan took issue with Berlin’s delayed condemnation of the attack.

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Solidarity

The shadow of the coup attempt hung over yesterday’s meeting with news that 40 Turkish soldiers involved have filed for asylum in Germany, prompting Mr Erdogan to talk of the need for “solidarity” among Nato partners.

“We are leading the biggest battle against Islamic State,” said Mr Erdogan, equating that terrorist organisation with the Gülen movement he sees as behind the putsch attempt. “These are all terror organisations. The people are hiding themselves in Germany.”

For her part, Dr Merkel hit back at revelations that Ditib, a Turkish cultural institute in Germany, has been informing on Gülen supporters and Erdogan opponents. Several imams with the organisation, financed in part by the Turkish state, have reportedly passed on to Ankara details of Gülen supporters in their midst.

The German leader warned that any further indications that these cultural organisations were “spying” would see an intervention from German authorities.

“That is what happens in traditional democracies,” she said.

The chancellor’s visit to Ankara before April’s constitutional referendum has been criticised in Germany for allowing pro-government media present her presence as tacit approval of Mr Erdogan’s strategy in the last months – and his plans for the country’s future.

But Merkel officials say the German leader had little option but to travel now, given the uncertain future of the EU’s refugee-swap deal with Turkey.

Eight months before Germany’s federal election, with Islamist attacks hardening German public opinion towards refugees, Dr Merkel knows a collapse of this deal could shatter her hopes for a fourth term.

After 890,000 arrivals in 2015, numbers have dropped significantly in the last months in part due to the bilateral deal promising EU funding for Turkey if it accepts returned asylum seekers.

Brink of collapse

But that refugee-swap deal is on the brink of collapse, and with it Turkey’s EU accession hopes, because of EU condemnation of Mr Erdogan’s post-putsch crackdown on political opponents, teachers and politicians.

Aware of the expectations – and propaganda potential – of her visit, Dr Merkel repeated her call for respect for freedom of opinion at meetings with opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu and the pro-Kurd HDP politician Iris Balken, released this week after three months in prison.

Ahead of those meetings, Mr Erdogan disputed western portrayal of his post-coup strategy and denied that proposed changes to the Turkish state, expected to be passed by parliament in the coming days before the April poll, would hand him absolute power.

“Reform gives more opportunity for the executive branch to work more swiftly,” he said. “The judiciary will retain its power and function as usual with the new system.”