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Erdogan in Germany: Friend or foe?

September 27, 2018

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's state visit to Germany has been carefully choreographed to put the soured relations between Berlin and Ankara back on track. Will it work?

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DW Quadriga 27.09.2018 - Popp
Image: DW

Guests: Maximilian Popp (Spiegel), Deger Akal (DW), Dilek Kurban (Hertie School of Governance) 

Maximilian Popp, a Turkey correspondent for the weekly news magazine Spiegel. He says: "The German government should use Erdogan's state visit to strengthen democracy in Turkey."

DW Quadriga 27.09.2018 - Deger Akal
Image: DW

Also with us is DW's own Deger Akal, a specialist on Turkish-German relations, formerly based in Ankara, now with DW here in Berlin.

Deger believes that Erdogan is neither friend nor a foe. "Important strategic interests force Germany to talk with the Turkish president. But not at any price!"

DW Quadriga 27.09.2018 - Dilek Kurban
Image: DW

And a warm welcome, too, to Dilek Kurban from the Berlin-based Hertie School of Governance.

She thinks that it's high time for the German government to uphold democratic values and human rights instead of its economic, political and security interests in its dealings with the Erdogan regime.