German Chancellor Friedrich Merz met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Thursday in Ankara as both countries explored new pathways for bilateral economic relations.
Merz made his inaugural visit to Türkiye to discuss bilateral relations, foreign policy, and cooperation on economics, migration, and security.
A welcome ceremony was held for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz upon his arrival at the Turkish presidency ahead of his meeting with Erdoğan.
He also visited the Atatürk mausoleum where he laid a wreath at the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founding father of the Republic of Türkiye.
At a joint press conference following a one on one meeting between the two leaders, Erdoğan said Türkiye and Germany have high potential in the defence industry and must focus on joint projects
"In light of the changing security conditions in Europe, we must leave behind problems in the procurement of defence industry products and focus on joint projects," he said.
Erdoğan also slammed Germany over what he said was its ignorance of Israel's "genocide", famine and attacks in Gaza, at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Ankara on Thursday.
He accused Israel of having nuclear and other weapons with which it was using and threatening Gaza, adding Palestinian militant group Hamas had none of those.
He said Israel had once again attacked Gaza in recent days despite a ceasefire in the enclave.
"Does Germany not see these?" he said, adding it was Türkiye, Germany and other countries' humanitarian duty to end the famine and massacres in Gaza.
Asked about the jailing of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, Erdoğan said that nobody could trample on laws regardless of their position, and added that the judiciary was managing the legal process as needed.
Imamoglu has been in prison since March pending trial on corruption charges that he and his main opposition party deny.
He also said the two countries had a high potential in the defence industry and must focus on joint projects.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz sees Türkiye as a close partner to the European Union and wants to develop bilateral economic relations, including in the transport sector, he said on his first visit to the country.
"I personally, and the German government, see Türkiye as a close partner of the European Union. We want to continue smoothing the way to Europe," said Merz at a news conference with Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan.
He said the two had spoken about migration and wanted to make further progress on the repatriation of failed asylum seekers.
Türkiye has been a candidate for EU membership since 2005 and is also being courted by the German coalition government because of its geopolitical location.
Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine the EU was keen to explore opportunities for deeper cooperation with Türkiye that controls access to the Black Sea.
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