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GERMANY AND TURKEY

German president brings kebab chef on Turkey visit to highlight immigrant stories

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier begins a delicate visit to Turkey on Monday, taking a Berlin kebab chef with him as a show of close personal ties between the two nations despite differences with his Turkish counterpart.

Published: 22 April 2024 09:15 CEST

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier boards plan to Turkey on Monday. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Bernd von Jutrczenka

Steinmeier, who is visiting Turkey for the first time since becoming president, has had a difficult relationship with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The German head of state has been quick to call out Erdogan’s approach towards Israel and has previously raised concerns about the erosion of democratic norms in Turkey.

The fact that he is not starting the trip in the capital Ankara “is a signal,” said a source in the German presidency who asked not to be named.

Instead, Steinmeier’s first stop will be Istanbul, where he will meet civil society activists, as well as the city’s mayor, opposition figure Ekrem Imamoglu.

Voters’ decision to return Imamoglu as mayor in recent local elections dealt a blow to Erdogan and his ruling party.

On Tuesday, Steinmeier will meet survivors of the devastating 2023 earthquake in Gaziantep near the Syrian border.

Talks with Erdogan in Ankara will wait until Wednesday.

Instead of flattering the president, Steinmeier is hoping to put the emphasis on the links between people in the two countries – including the achievements of generations of immigrants from Turkey living in Germany.

Döner diplomacy

In particular, the German president hopes to highlight the contribution made by generations of Turkish migrants, who since the 1960s have come to work in Germany.

Among those to establish themselves in Germany was the grandfather of Arif Keles, a Berlin kebab shop owner invited on the trip by Steinmeier.

The grilled meat artisan will serve Döner kebab to guests at a dinner in Istanbul on Monday night.

“The spit is travelling with us in the presidential plane,” Keles told AFP ahead of the journey.

The dish of thinly sliced meat cooked on a vertical rotisserie was introduced to Germany by Turkish migrants.

Packed with chopped vegetables and doused with mayonnaise, the doner kebab has gained iconic status.

The snack has become “a kind of German national food”, one of Steinmeier’s advisors said in a briefing.

Local sales of the kebab total an estimated seven billion euros – an immigrant success story the German presidency wants to celebrate.

Döner dealer Keles is the third generation to manage the family business in southwest Berlin.

His grandfather moved to Germany and worked for years in a factory before opening his own restaurant in 1986.

“Now the president is taking me as a grandson to the home of my ancestors,” Keles said.

“I see it as a great honour that I am allowed to go on this visit.”

Immigrant stories

Steinmeier’s trip was meant to underline that “the personal stories and achievements of four generations of Turkish immigrants” are part of Germany’s history, the presidential office said.

Around three million people with Turkish heritage live in Germany, but their presence has often been the subject of a fraught debate over split loyalties.

A German and Turkish passport held up in parliament in Kiel. Photo: picture alliance / Carsten Rehder/dpa | Carsten Rehder

Only last year, Germany agreed to significantly ease citizenship rules to allow more dual nationals, a relief to many Turkish people who have lived in Germany for decades.

Perceived backing for Erdogan in the Turkish diaspora has also caused irritation in Germany, while officials in Berlin have had a strained relationship with Ankara.

Erdogan’s support for Hamas has troubled Berlin, which solidly backs Israel in the war against the Palestinian militant group.

Erdogan traded barbs with Steinmeier on a visit to Germany in November last year, shortly after the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel that triggered the war.

The disagreement has added to tensions over sharp German criticism of authoritarian moves that German officials see as threatening democracy in Turkey.

Berlin has criticised Erdogan’s clampdown on domestic dissent while recognising that getting regional power Turkey onside was necessary to tackle thorny issues.

Despite having served seven years as president, this is Steinmeier’s first visit to Turkey as head of state.

By Peter WUETHERICH

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INTERVIEW: 'Failed climate policies are fuelling far-right politics in Germany'

It’s understood that far-right and populist political parties tend to either downplay the realities of climate change, or block progressive policies that would try to mitigate its impacts. But the link between failed climate policies and the recent rise of populist parties is rarely addressed.

Speaking as a panellist at the Green Tech Festival in Berlin on Thursday, climate policy thought-leader Sandrine Dixson-Declève voiced concern that poor climate and economic policies are fuelling the popularity of far-right politics in Germany and across Europe.

Co-president of the Club of Rome, Dixson-Declève works to promote policies that she believes would help secure a sustainable future for humanity. Such policies are laid out in the book Earth for All: A Survival Guide for Humanity, that she co-authored.

The Local spoke with Sandrine Dixson-Declève about Germany’s climate policy failures, and why she thinks the upcoming European elections are of the utmost importance.

The shortcomings of Germany’s ‘Energiewende’ had serious political consequences

Having been a contributor and advisor to Germany’s Energiewende (energy transition), Dixson-Declève has followed German politics and environmental policy for years.

“I believe that one of the biggest mistakes was that we politicised energy policy in Germany from the outset,” she told The Local, adding, “Merkel actually accepted the big green push to pull out of nuclear, which actually created a big mess.”

Germany’s anti-nuclear energy movement dates back to the 19070s, and led to the foundation of the Green party. Under Merkel’s leadership, a plan was adopted to phase out nuclear power with the last three nuclear power plants taken offline in 2023.

But losing nuclear power as an energy source came with some serious consequences.

“The first big mess was the continued burning of coal,” Dixson-Declève explained. “The second big mess was Nord Stream 2, and that led to the invasion of Ukraine…because it gave Putin power.”

Still, she wouldn’t suggest that Germany try to revive its nuclear power now: “I believe that Germany needs to really think through the next steps.”

Protestors run past riot police

A wave of protestors break through police lines at Lützerath. Open pit coal mining in west Germany destroyed most of the Hambach Forest, as well as dozens of villages such as Lützerath. At both sites massive citizen protests were met with brutal police evictions. Photo by Paul Krantz.

Energy efficiency is the missing piece to Germany’s climate plans

How to build up renewable energy infrastructure is at the centre of most discourse around curbing fossil fuel use, but using the energy we have more efficiently arguably deserves more immediate attention.

“The other missing link, which no one talks about, is energy efficiency,” Dixson-Declève said. “Actually the best energy is the energy you don’t use. That is unsexy, and that is why energy efficiency hasn’t been taken up the way it should have been since 2010.”

While working on climate and energy plans in 2010, she says she came across a study that said Europe could wean itself off of Russian gas just by putting energy efficiency requirements in place for buildings.

In 2022 the European Commission finally began to take this idea seriously when Germany and Europe suddenly needed to replace Russian gas imports, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Another massive energy saver that has been politicised for all the wrong reasons in Germany is heat pumps.

According to Eurostat data, about half of all energy consumed in the EU is used for heating and cooling, and most of that energy comes from fossil fuels. Heat pumps are significantly more efficient than boilers and allow for greater use of renewable energy sources.

But when Economy Minister Robert Habeck led an effort to promote heat pumps by banning new fossil-powered heating systems, conservative and far-right parties jumped on the issue as if it were an attack on personal freedoms.

“As environmentalists, we need to get better at translating the environmental narrative into something that resonates with people,” said Dixson-Declève.

A unified coalition government that is serious about climate protections might have better communicated to people that heat pumps would ultimately save them money: “They should have been enabled in a way that truly assisted people in getting the heat that they needed in an affordable way at the right time.”

‘I am very scared we are in a 1930s moment’

Whereas the coalition government has largely failed to communicate to voters how environmental policies will improve their lives and save them money, conservative and far-right parties have done extremely well at hijacking the narrative.

The European People’s Party (EPP – the EU’s largest conservative party), for example, is particularly adept at using citizens’ economic concerns to block environmental policies.

Having analysed the EPP’s manifestos, Dixson-Declève notes that they acknowledge the need to mitigate climate change, but say that protections cannot cost.

“I think the EPP has done a very good job both of putting in fear of the greens, [as if] they’re only going to think about green climate policies and not about social policies [whereas] we’re here to think about you.”

Sandrine Dixson-Declève with Earth for All

Sandrine Dixson-Declève holds up a copy of the book ‘Earth for All’ alongside two of the book’s co-authors. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Wolfgang Kumm

Germany’s far-right parties tend to use similar messaging to try and convince voters that they will better improve the lives of citizens than the current coalition parties have.

Nearly 100 years ago, the National Socialist (Nazi) party succeeded in drumming up major support along similar lines.

Speaking as a panellist at Berlin’s Green Tech Festival, when asked how she thought European politicians were doing on climate issues, Dixson-Declève described them as deer in the headlights, adding, “I am very scared we are in a 1930s moment”.

“I think that in the 1930s we didn’t see Hitler coming, we didn’t read the tea leaves,” she told The Local, adding that in the present moment, “people are suffering. When people suffer, they look to anything, any message that’s going to make them feel like that next leader is going to help them.”

She also suggests that we can’t count on the youth vote to save us, citing Argentina and Portugal as two places where young voters have actually pushed politics to the right recently.

“This is a tipping moment politically, and if we’re not careful, it could explode in our faces,” said Dixson-Declève. “We need to get as many people to vote this year [as possible]. It’s an absolutely fundamental vote, alongside the United States, in order to make sure that we don’t slide to the right across Europe.”

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