Turkish Erdogan in Berlin promises a new wave of visas

BERLIN / DUESSELDORF, Germany (Reuters) – President Tayyip Erdogan said in Berlin on Friday that Turkey is trying to make it easier for citizens to access the European Union.

Turkey would strive to meet EU criteria for visa liberalization, the second day of the visit said, with the aim of improving relations with the EU after the freeze that followed failure of the coup in 2016.

Faced with an economic crisis aggravated by US sanctions, Erdogan hopes to attract more private investors from the economic superpower to the gates of Turkey.

"The liberalization of visas, the update of the customs union and the relaunch of accession negotiations will benefit both Turkey and the EU," said Erdogan.

Germany, which has 3 million Turks and depends on Turkey to help contain a migration crisis beyond the borders of Europe, is also eager to rebuild links, but the three-day visit from all sides arouses mistrust.

With Erdogan heading to Cologne, one of the largest Turkish communities outside Turkey, on Saturday, the authorities refused to allow a crowd of 25,000 people to gather in front of a giant new mosque he was to open.

The regional government is also due to reorganize a morning meeting between North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister Armin Laschet and Erdogan after the ancestral owners of the castle, which was to be the venue of the meeting, obtained an injunction preventing his visit.

Ankara is still optimistic about Europe's slowness in condemning the failed coup against Erdogan in 2016, while Germany and the EU countries are concerned about the massive arrests that followed,

BERLIN LOCKDOWN

Merkel said she lobbied for the release of German citizens among the tens of thousands of people arrested after the coup, blamed in Ankara on supporters of the American religious Fetullah Gulen. Gulen denies any involvement.

"We take very seriously the evidence provided by Turkey," Merkel said at a press conference, but said that Germany needed more evidence to declare that the Gulen movement was an illegal group, as demanded by Ankara.

The Bild newspaper reported that Erdogan was ready to cancel the press conference if Can Dundar, a journalist who had fled Turkey for German exile after being accused of espionage, was present.

As a result, Dundar remained on the sidelines, saying that he did not want to give Mr. Erdogan an excuse "to not appear at the press conference and answer critical questions from my German colleagues ".

Erdogan had previously described the former editor of the newspaper Cumhuriyet – who has published a video claiming to show trucking weapons from the Turkish intelligence agency in Syria – as a "spy" who should be extradited to serve his sentence. Dundar rejected this accusation.

The day was punctuated by protests, from the moment a participant in the press conference wearing a T-shirt with the slogan "Freedom for Journalists" was unmasked when he tried to scream Erdogan.

Much of central Berlin was blocked for the visit, reflecting nervousness at the division of a visitor who is hailed as a hero by many German Turks and who is considered autocratic by many others.

"It is a scandal in the history of this country that to innovate for dictators," said leftist party politician Hakan Tas, during a protest on a square Central. "The day will come when the murderer of the Bosphorus Massif will sit behind bars."