When it comes to Turkey’s relations with the European Union, Germany would be the first country to focus on. Berlin has had deep and old ties with Turkey in both economical and cultural dimensions for about a century. Sharing a destructive defeat at World War I, the two countries have kept close cooperation except for the World War II period. Hundreds of thousands of expat workers immigrated to Germany from Turkey in the 60s and today, the fourth generation forms a huge Turkish diaspora of about 4 million population.

Increasing tension

Germany’s support of Turkey’s EU membership candidature started to decrease with Chancellor Merkel. Berlin’s rulers used to back Turkey with the concern of collecting Turkish-German votes since then. However, Frau Merkel saw another social dynamic: The antipathy of millions of German-German voters over a Muslim diaspora that could not integrate to the European values and lifestyle for more than four decades. That was the time that the new Sultan, Recep Tayyip Erdogan seized the power with a questionable election victory in Turkey. As a result the distant brothers started to argue.

Now, after 15 years, Berlin and Ankara are at the edge of cutting diplomatic ties. The last occasion is the hindering the visit of German MPs to Incirlik Military Base in Turkey used by NATO ally countries. However Germany is still Turkey’s Nr.1 foreign trade partner (Except Russia, the main vendor of natural gas) and Business People from both sides seem to not care of the political conflict. At the “Turkey-Germany Business Day” event that took place last week in Izmir, the western resort metropol of Turkey, top managers of major German companies expressed intentions of persisting their investments in Turkey.

More investments?

Umit Dursun, Sales Manager of Hübner, the leading German plastic and rubber products company, was one of them.

Without mentioning the financial mass, Mr. Dursun announced that Hübner is intending to build a new factory producing plastic wagon bends in western Turkey in two years’ time. Uluc Batmaz, Production Manager of Mercedes-Benz truck and bus factory in Aksaray, says “Half of the busses and two third of the trucks on Turkey’s highways are produced in our factory. As an answer to such a question like ‘Will you postpone your investments due to latest political developments’, we say a clear ‘No’. I would like to remind you that our company announced its investment schedule on 19th of July last year.” The date Mr. Batmaz mentioned is just four days after the failed coup attempt in Turkey. Though all these exited statements, the investment climate still needs a more tranquil atmosphere.

That’s what Mr. Adem Akkaya, representative of NRW.INVEST, North Rhine Westphalia’s investment agency in Turkey underlines. During his statement for BlastingNews, Akkaya expressed that politicians of both sides should express some good will for sake of mutual economical interest.