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Erdogan Visit to Germany Highlights Activities of Pro-Hamas Turkish Lobby Groups
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Photo: Reuters/Fabrizio Bensch
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s official visit to Germany on Friday was shrouded in tension over his constant attacks upon the State of Israel along with renewed interest in the German press concerning the activities of Turkish lobby groups in the country.
There was little fanfare around Erdogan’s visit, which consisted of two private meetings with Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, while a planned trip to a soccer friendly between Germany and Turkey was canceled.
“There was a fear that there’d be anti-Israel chants,” Aydin Yasar, a Turkey specialist at the German think tank SWP, told Reuters. “It’s unlikely Scholz would want to watch it with him. At other times it would have been a nice gesture.”
Despite the fact that both Scholz and Steinmeier have vocally backed Israel’s right to defend itself in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom, neither man elected to confront Erdogan over his support for Hamas. A terse statement from Steinmeier’s office posted on X/Twitter after his dinner with Erdogan noted that “due to the latest statements from Turkey on the Middle East conflict, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier made clear Germany’s position,” which “highlighted Israel’s right to exist as well as its right to defend itself.” Meanwhile, Scholz on Tuesday described Erdogan’s characterization of Hamas as a liberation movement and not a terrorist organization as “absurd,” insisting that Israel is “a country that is bound to human rights and international law and acts accordingly.”
Separately, a spokesperson for Scholz declined to speculate, when asked by the Reuters news agency, on how Germany would proceed with Erdogan‘s request to buy 40 Eurofighter Typhoon warplanes — a move that would need Scholz’s support since Germany is part of the consortium that builds them. The broader discussions taking place during Erdogan’s first visit to Germany since 2020 aim to forge a degree of consensus on trade, migration, and defense issues, despite the gap between the two countries on both the war in Gaza and Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Erdogan’s presence has underscored the influence of pro-government lobby groups among the three million German residents with roots in Turkey.
The Union of International Democrats (UID) — a Cologne-based organization — has been closely scrutinized by the German authorities since the summer, amid wider concerns that the MTK, Turkey’s security service, has stepped up its propaganda activities among Germany’s Turkish communities.
Last week, the UID quietly canceled a forthcoming public meeting in December that would have featured Abdurrahman Uzun, a Turkish YouTube influencer known for his antisemitic rants. “Do you know why I am an enemy of Israel and the Jews, do you know that? God made me an enemy of the Jews, this Israel and these Zionists in the Quran,” Uzun said in a video posted five days after the Hamas onslaught. “God declared me an enemy of this tribe, this Zionist tribe, in the Quran.”
In an interview with the broadcaster ARD this week, Tugrul Selmanoglu, a senior UID official, suggested that Erdogan could lead a “union” of Islamic countries in a war against Israel.
Observing that “there are no leaders, there is no caliph, there is no diplomatic institution that can lead that,” Selmanoglu added, “0f course that would be one [person] that comes to everyone’s mind.” Asked if he meant Erdogan, he replied, “if you say so” with a laugh.
“The UID is ultimately also a propaganda center that is clearly committed to mobilizing AKP voters and represents Erdogan’s political interests here in Germany,” Burak Copur, a Germany-based political analyst, told the tagesschau news outlet. He observed as well that the group was “being monitored by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution because its goals are not compatible with Germany’s free, democratic basic order.”
More than 2,000 incidents targeting Jews in Germany have been recorded since Oct. 7, according to data from the Federal Criminal Police Office released last week. The explosion of violence and harassment has highlighted the prevalence of antisemitic attitudes among Germany’s Muslim communities, who have staged angry demonstrations in support of Hamas in several cities during the last month.
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Lebanon Must Disarm Hezbollah to Have a Shot at Better Days, Says US Envoy
Thomas Barrack at the Brooklyn Federal Courthouse in Brooklyn, New York, U.S., November 4, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
i24 News – Lebanon’s daunting social, economic and political issues would not get resolved unless the state persists in the efforts to disarm Hezbollah, the Iranian proxy behind so much of the unrest and destruction, special US envoy Tom Barrack told The National.
“You have Israel on one side, you have Iran on the other, and now you have Syria manifesting itself so quickly that if Lebanon doesn’t move, it’s going to be Bilad Al Sham again,” he said, using the historical Arabic name for the region sometimes known as “larger Syria.”
The official stressed the need to follow through on promises to disarm the Iranian proxy, which suffered severe blows from Israel in the past year, including the elimination of its entire leadership, and is considered a weakened though still dangerous jihadist outfit.
“There are issues that we have to arm wrestle with each other over to come to a final conclusion. Remember, we have an agreement, it was a great agreement. The problem is, nobody followed it,” he told The National.
Barrack spoke on the heels of a trip to Beirut, where he proposed a diplomatic plan for the region involving the full disarmament of Hezbollah by the Lebanese state.
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Report: Putin Urges Iran to Accept ‘Zero Enrichment’ Nuclear Deal With US
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian on the sidelines of a cultural forum dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the birth of the Turkmen poet and philosopher Magtymguly Fragi, in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Oct. 11, 2024. Photo: Sputnik/Alexander Scherbak/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – Russian President Vladimir Putin has told Iranian leadership that he supports the idea of a nuclear deal in which Iran is unable to enrich uranium, the Axios website reported on Saturday. The Russian strongman also relayed the message to his American counterpart, President Donald Trump, the report said.
Iranian news agency Tasnim issued a denial, citing an “informed source” as saying Putin had not sent any message to Iran in this regard.
Also on Saturday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated that “Any negotiated solution must respect Iran’s right to enrichment. No agreement without recognizing our right to enrichment. If negotiations occur, the only topic will be the nuclear program. No other issues, especially defense or military matters, will be on the agenda.”
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Syria’s Al-Sharaa Attending At Least One Meeting With Israeli Officials in Azerbaijan
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks during a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron after a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, May 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq/Pool
i24 News – Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa is attending at least one meeting with Israeli officials in Azerbaijan today, despite sources in Damascus claiming he wasn’t attending, a Syrian source close to President Al-Sharaa tells i24NEWS.
The Syrian source stated that this is a series of two or three meetings between the sides, with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani also in attendance, along with Ahmed Al-Dalati, the Syrian government’s liaison for security meetings with Israel.
The high-level Israeli delegation includes a special envoy of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, as well as security and military figures.
The purpose of the meetings is to discuss further details of the security agreement to be signed between Israel and Syria, the Iranian threat in Syria and Lebanon, Hezbollah’s weapons, the weapons of Palestinian militias, the Palestinians camps in Lebanon, and the future of Palestinian refugees from Gaza in the region.
The possibility of opening an Israeli coordination office in Damascus, without diplomatic status, might also be discussed.
The source stated that the decision to hold the meetings in Azerbaijan, made by Israel and the US, is intended to send a message to Iran.
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