We can solve our problems through dialogue, says Turkey’s PM as tension with Germany grows
After attending a Friday prayer on July 21, Turkey’s Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım gave statements on pressing issues of the day, including the current crisis with Germany over the detention of a German human rights defender, along with 5 other activists, in Turkey earlier in July.
“Germany and Turkey are very old strategic partners; we were also together during the WWI. And, before that, the Ottomans had a rootes relations with them (Germans). Today, our government continues to see it as a strategic partner. Time to time, tension rises due to certain considerations. But I call for deliberate action. Damaging of relations would have benefit neither for Germany nor for Turkey. The biggest tension is with regards to terrorist organizations FETÖ and PKK. We want necessary cautions to be taken. What we want is something that is necessiated by international law. There is no meaning in furthering the tension”.
Stating the reports about 68 German firms were to face legal action in Turkey were ‘not true’, PM Yıldırım called on the German authorities and said: “We believe that we can solve all of our problems by talking”.