Stable, democratic Turkey in Germany's interest: Merkel

By Ayhan Simsek

BERLIN

A stable, prosperous and democratic Turkey is in the interest of Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

Responding to questions by journalists during a regular news conference in Berlin, deputy government spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer did not confirm or deny recent media reports that claimed Germany could provide assistance to Turkey to prevent a financial crisis.

“The federal government is closely following developments in Turkey. A stable, prosperous and democratic Turkey is in our interest,” Demmer said.

Several European media outlets reported on Tuesday that Germany was examining ways to assist Turkey, and claimed that the options included a coordinated European assistance, bilateral aid or project-specific loans by state-controlled development banks.

Last week, German government spokesman said Berlin was not planning a bilateral financial assistance for the time being.

Deputy government spokeswoman refrained from making a detailed comment on whether the government had changed its position, but said she did not have an update about the matter.

Demmer also said that one should wait for the upcoming high-level talks between German and Turkish governments.

“As you know preparations are continuing. Ahead of President Erdogan’s visit, the finance minister will meet with his counterpart here,” Demmer said and added that she could not anticipate the discussions.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will pay a key visit to Germany on Sept. 28-29.

Ahead of the visit, Turkish Finance Minister Berat Albayrak is expected to meet German counterpart Olaf Scholz in Berlin on Sept. 21.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas is also scheduled to visit Turkey next week for talks on economic and political ties, and international issues.

On Tuesday, Maas criticized U.S. President Donald Trump’s sanctions and his economic pressure policy towards Turkey.

“Of course we Europeans have a great interest in a stable economic development in Turkey,” he said.

Germany is Turkey’s main economic and trade partner and more than 7,500 German companies are active in Turkey. In 2017, the bilateral trade volume reached €37.6 billion ($43.6 billion).