SETA Foundation in Ankara hosted the panel “Turkey-German Relations after the 15th July Coup Attempt” on Tuesday 13^th of December 2016. The Panel discussed the Turkish-German relations mainly after the coup attempt, and examined both the challenges and the possible solution of the problems facing the relation.

The first speaker Mustafa Yeneroglu from the Turkish National Assembly TBMM started his speech by stating that ‘the Turkish-German relations went into hard times in the last years’. Yeneroglu highlighted the point that some of the Turkish diaspora in Germany are under the effect of the PKK, adding that they are effective in German politics, and have connections with the leftists. Yeneroglu also compared between Germany, which has journalist and NGOs in Turkey on one hand, and Turkey which despite the 3 million Turks still unable to achieve the same level of effectiveness and presence in Germany.

Yeneroglu also claimed that German perception of PKK wings in Syria and Iraq (like PYD) is that they are fighting for the security of Germany, he further argued that the German media and journalism have one sided view, and That German people are not being informed in the right way, although they have a good intention.

The second Panelist Sven-Joachim Irmer from ‘Konrad Adenauer Foundation’ claimed that before the night of 15 July the majority of the Germans did not know about the FETO and its terrorist face. Irmer added that criticizing is something normal between friends (referring to the tension between Germany and Turkey in last years), however, he focused on the importance of the exchange of students between the universities of the two countries to listen and to understand each other. He ended his session by saying ‘please do not forget the good and positive things we achieved together, otherwise we will not be able to continue the dialogue’.

The third and last panelist was Enes Bayrakli from SETA Foundation.  Bayrakli stated that some Turkish internal problems like the issue of PKK, Alawite issue, FETO, and the modernization of Turkey has been transformed and reflected on Germany with the migration waves. Bayrakli also mentioned the ‘representation problem’ for the conservative segment of Turks in Germany. He also touched upon the German media coverage on Turkey saying that ‘after 15 July the European media and its coverage of the coup attempt was another matter of shock for us’, he added that there is a highly negative approach to president Erdogan in German media in particular (compared to other European media). He ended with stating that ‘it seems that Germany insists on working with old Turkey and old politicians, and resists to accept the fact of a new Turkey’