German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday that Berlin would monitor Türkiye's EU membership process closely, making clear that all conditions must be fulfilled. Her remarks came after her first formal meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who left the talks expressing confidence in German support for Türkiye's accession bid.
Merkel's stance on the issue has shifted over time. She originally opposed opening membership negotiations and favored a looser "privileged partnership" arrangement, a position that drew sharp criticism from Türkiye's roughly 2.5 million-strong community in Germany. She later dropped that opposition during coalition talks, and the new government settled on language describing the outcome of negotiations as "open," committing to nothing in advance.
The previous chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, had been a firm advocate for Türkiye's EU ambitions when membership talks formally opened in October. Türkiye's EU candidacy had also been a notable fault line in Germany's 2005 election campaign.
Erdoğan is navigating domestic pressures as well, facing deep mistrust from secularist institutions, including the military, who suspect his Justice and Development Party of pushing a greater role for Islam in public life ahead of elections scheduled for the following year.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in May 2006, in its own words.