Merkel defends ‘golden throne’ image with Erdogan in new book

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in her new book, Freedom, that she must engage Türkiye to negotiate a controversial migration agreement in 2016 to stop the flow of refugees to Europe, despite strong criticism from European public opinion.

Merkel declares that it would have been illusory to avoid dialogue with Turkish President Recep Erdogan on the subject. Syrian crisis, although she also writes in the book that she always thought that opening negotiations for European Union membership with Turkey was a mistake.

In the book, Merkel recounts the events leading up to a high-level meeting with Erdogan in October 2015 in Istanbul, which was heavily criticized by the German public for its optics, particularly because of the golden seats.

“My trip to Istanbul was harshly criticized, notably because of two chairs, or golden thrones, to be precise,” she wrote.

“Erdogan sat on one and I sat on the other. We sat on it not just for the photocall but for the entire duration of our conversation. All I thought was: Wow , look at this!” she added.

“When we agreed on certain things, he was very gracious and called me his ‘dear friend’

-Angela Merkel

“I was then accused of bowing to Erdogan like an emperor in his palace, and it was suggested that I would throw myself to the ground in front of him simply to make a deal with Turkey to keep more refugees away.

“To make matters worse, as this visit took place two weeks before Turkey’s parliamentary elections, I was also accused of helping the election campaign of Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP).”

Merkel said such criticism was “unfair and, in part, false”, explaining that both right and left in Germany were putting pressure on her to do everything in her power to reduce the number of arriving refugees. in Europe, while accusing him of negotiating with “the autocrats” in Ankara so close to the elections.

“It was ridiculous,” she said. “One only needs to look at the map and the realities of the Aegean Sea to see that it is only possible to organize and manage developments in collaboration with Turkey, and that this must be done urgently. the rest was just an illusion, and I had no illusions.”

He called me his “dear friend”

Merkel added that she had to negotiate with Erdogan because Turkey was the main transit country for many refugees arriving via the Balkan route.

“That is why I negotiated with the Turkish president and, in doing so, saw Erdogan as a politician capable of acting across the political spectrum, not just in terms of refugee policy,” writes- her in her book. “When we agreed on certain things, he was very gracious and called me his ‘dear friend.’ When we had differences of opinion, he took every opportunity to counter-argue at length, which meant sometimes the discussions dragged on.”

Merkel said she compared Erdogan’s behavior to that of leaders with autocratic tendencies.

“I have also observed that a typical characteristic of politicians with autocratic tendencies is that they have unlimited time when they need it. In such cases, simultaneous interpretation is simply replaced by “consecutive interpretation,” she said.

Merkel continued her negotiations through telephone calls with Ahmet Davutoglu, then Turkish Prime Minister, whom she described as “a cosmopolitan, well-informed man with a background in history, who spoke perfect English and a little of German.”

Turkey and the EU finally reached an agreement in 2016 based on Davutoglu’s proposal, known as the “one-to-one” mechanism: any migrants arriving illegally on the Greek islands would be returned to Turkey on the basis for a Greece-Turkey readmission. agreement. In exchange, for every Syrian returned to Türkiye from the Greek islands, another Syrian would be resettled directly from Türkiye to the European Union.

“This was a bold and pioneering proposal, which aimed not only to prevent illegal immigration through border protection measures, but also to enable legal immigration,” adds Merkel.

In addition to the 3 billion euros ($3.14 billion) agreed to be paid to Turkey in 2015 for the construction of schools for Syrian refugee children and the implementation of other measures, the EU also promised to make available an additional 3 billion euros to Turkey by the end of 2018. The EU further committed to extending visa liberalization for Turkey, provided certain conditions are met, and to open new chapters in the EU accession process.

“Subsequently, the number of refugees arriving in Northern Europe and thus also arriving in Germany via the Balkan route decreased significantly – by 95 percent compared to October 2015,” she adds.

However, Turkey suspended the readmission deal in 2018, citing tensions with Greece over the Aegean Sea and the presence of Turkish soldiers in Greece accused of participating in an attempted coup in Turkey.