Germany wants to improve ties with Turkey: FM Maas

By Ayhan Simsek

BERLIN

Germany wants to improve relations with Turkey and enhance cooperation on issues of common interest, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said ahead of his talks in Ankara.

"Germany has a strategic interest in reshaping our relations with Turkey in a constructive way. Turkey is not only a big neighbor of us but also an important partner of Germany," he said in a statement.

Maas is scheduled to meet his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu and other senior officials on Wednesday in the capital Ankara.

Over the past two years, political relations between Ankara and Berlin have suffered setbacks, but in recent months both sides have taken steps towards improving ties.

Germany’s top diplomat said, during his talks in Ankara, he would also raise the issue of several German citizens, who were arrested in Turkey as part of counter-terrorism investigations.

Turkish government has repeatedly ruled out any political influence on the judiciary and also advised German politicians to wait for the decisions of the courts.

A senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said all those concerned were German citizens with Turkish migrant background and they were arrested on charges of providing support to a terrorist organization, in most of the cases to the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO).

High-level talks

On Wednesday, Maas is also expected to be received by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Parliament Speaker Binali Yildirim in Ankara.

Following his high-level talks in the capital, Maas is scheduled to visit Istanbul on Thursday, where he will attend a celebration together with Cavusoglu to mark the 150th anniversary of the German School of Istanbul.

Maas' two-day trip to Turkey comes ahead of Erdogan’s key visit to Berlin on Sept. 28-29.

EU heavyweight Germany remains Turkey’s main economic and trade partner, despite political disagreements between the two governments on a number of issues.

Berlin’s reluctance to take serious measures against terrorist groups such as the PKK and FETO has long been a source of tension between the two countries.

Both terrorist groups use Germany, which is home to more than 3 million migrants from Turkey, as a platform for their propaganda fund raising and recruitment activities.