Inside Story

Can Turkey and Germany restore their broken relationship?

Erdogan and Merkel have traded barbs over everything from human rights abuses to political campaigning and migration.

Turkey’s president is in the middle of a three-day state visit to Germany, but the leaders of the two countries have not seen eye-to-eye on many issues recently.

It’s a critically important tour for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as Turkey faces an economic crisis brought on by the crash of its currency, the lira, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel could be part of the solution.

But behind the cordial greetings and joint news conferences, it’s been a rocky relationship for years.

The two leaders have traded barbs over everything from human rights abuses to political campaigning and migration.

But with three million Turks living in Germany, it’s always going to be a relationship that needs to work.

Presenter: Peter Dobbie

Guests:

Thorsten Benner – cofounder and director of the Global Public Policy Institute

Sinan Baykent – columnist and political analyst

Maurizio Zanardi – international economist at Lancaster University, UK