Steinmeier in Turkey for highly symbolic trip: The meeting with Imamoglu before Erdogan, the protests and the owner of a doner shop he took with him

File Photo German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (2-L) and Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu (R) chat before their meeting at Historic Sirkeci Train Station in Istanbul, Turkey, April 22, 2024. EPA/ERDEM SAHIN

The president of Germany is making a three-day visit to Turkey Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

The first stop of his visit is Istanbul, where he met with the mayor Ekrem Imamoglouwith whom they visited together the railway station of Sirkeci, on the European coast of Istanbul, from where the first group of Turkish workers left in 1961 as immigrants to Germany. During these days, a photography exhibition titled “Nostalgia for foreignness”.

To show his close personal ties with the Turks, Frank-Walter Steinmeier also took 38-year-old Arif Keles, a Turkish-born owner of a Turkish fast food restaurant with a famous doner in Berlin’s bustling Kreuzberg district, on the trip. There are daily queues at this particular hangout called Hisar Fresh Food, which was founded by Arif’s grandfather in 1986. “To travel with the German president, I see it as a great sign of appreciation” reported, according to DWArif Keles speaking to journalists. “As my grandfather’s grandson, I can now travel to the homeland of my ancestors with the German President.”

Moreover, in statements from the Istanbul train station, the German president said of the Turkish workers that “they built our country with us, made our country strong and are at the heart of our society”.

During Mr Steinmeier’s tour of the train station, a group of demonstrators protested Germany’s policy towards the Palestinians, chanting “Germany murders, is guilty of genocide”. The protesters were removed by the police.

On Tuesday, the German president will meet with victims of last year’s devastating earthquake in Gaziantep, southeastern Turkey, while his meeting with the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara is scheduled for Wednesday.

It’s about her first visit of Frank-Walter Steinmeier to Turkey in the seven years of his presidential term and he preferred to start his visit from Istanbul instead of the capital Ankara and meet with Mayor Imamoglu, who belongs to the Kemalist opposition. At the airport of the city, the reception reserved for him was low-grade – the prefect of Istanbul was waiting for him Davut Gul.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier criticized recently Mr. Erdogan’s stance on Israel and has previously expressed concern about democratic rights in Turkey.

There are approximately 2.8 million immigrants of Turkish origin in Germany. Of them, approx 1.2 million they are German citizens already voting in Germany.

With information from APE-MPE/ G. Mandalidis, DW