German chancellor to visit Turkey, with EU membership key issue

In the capital Ankara she will meet with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul. The two nations have extensive economic ties. She is also to visit Istanbul. She last visited Turkey in October 2006.

Turkey is currently involved in membership negotiations with the European Union, but Merkel has made clear that she prefers the country be given a "privileged partnership" with the bloc, rather than full membership.

Merkel reiterated her position in a recent interview with a German newspaper.

Turkish officials have said that Ankara will accept nothing less than full membership in the EU.

"Such a thing as privileged partnership does not exist," Egemen Bagis, Turkey's minister for European affairs, told reporters over the weekend.

"So we do not take that option seriously because there is no legal foundation of it. At times I feel insulted for being offered something which does not exist."

Germany is Turkey's largest trading partner and some three million Turks live in the country, the largest group living outside of Turkey.

The status of those Turks has exposed another area of disagreement between Merkel and Turkish leaders.

Erdogan's past criticism of Germany's policies to integrate ethnic Turkish immigrants and a call last week for Germany to fund Turkish- language high schools have meanwhile raised hackles among some of Merkel's conservative supporters.

Merkel also rejected the idea.

"I do not think this brings us forward, as I think that Turkish children and students should go to German schools. I do not think much of the idea of Turkish children going to Turkish school," she told the Passauer Neue Presse regional newspaper.

Other issues during Merkel's trip including a major gas pipeline crossing Turkey. The EU has helped advance the strategically important project, which moves gas west from the Caucasus, bypassing the Russian-controlled networks. The pipeline is expected to go into operation in 2014.

"Our business relationship with Turkey has been been developing at above-average rates for several years," said Werner Schnappauf, the chief executive of the German Industry Federation BDI in remarks to the newspaper Handelsblatt.

He said German exports to Turkey were worth 15 billion euros in 2008, making it more important as a market than Japan. He said the BDI wants a new double-taxation agreement between Turkey and Germany.

Berlin has cancelled the old agreement with effect at the end of 2010. A new one must replace it without any gap if the economic relationship is to continue undamaged, Schnappauf warned.

Earlier, a group of German legislators with Turkish ethnic roots sent an open letter to Merkel asking her to press Erdogan for more liberties in Turkey, including greater independence for the judiciary and more freedom of the press and of opinion.

They also called for broader rights for political parties in Turkey. The federal and state legislators said they supported in principle Turkey's desire to join the EU, since this would benefit both sides.


/Trend News/