Türkiye and Germany unveiled a joint cultural initiative in Istanbul in September 2006, aiming to strengthen ties between Western and Islamic societies and reduce religious and cultural misunderstandings.
Foreign ministers Abdullah Gul of Türkiye and Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany signed a joint declaration pledging to expand cooperation between the two countries' media and academic sectors, along with student and teacher exchange programs. The declaration also called on Türkiye's large diaspora community in Germany to improve their German-language skills.
The initiative was partly a response to the controversy earlier that year over European newspaper cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed, which the declaration said had exposed troubling levels of anti-Islamic sentiment in the West and anti-Western feeling in Muslim countries.
The project was named after Ernst Reuter, a prominent German politician and Cold War-era mayor of Berlin who spent his years of Nazi-era exile in Türkiye. Istanbul was chosen as the launch site for its symbolic position spanning both the European and Asian sides of the Bosphorus.
Gul noted that civic organizations would bear much of the real responsibility for making the initiative succeed. Steinmeier was due to travel onward to Lebanon after the Istanbul ceremony.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in September 2006, in its own words.