BERLIN (CÝHAN) - Turkish Parliament speaker Bulent Arinc paid a visited to German Christian Democrat Party (CDU) leader Angela Merkel. Arinc congratulated Merkel for her party's success in recent European Parliament elections.
Merkel said that her party's success in the EU parliamentary elections was not based on opposition to Turkey's EU membership but on the economic and political situation in Germany.
In last weekend's EU parliamentary elections, the German Christian Union garnered nearly 45 percent of the votes, defeating the ruling Social Democrat Party (SPD).
Arinc has been paying a 5-day official visit to Germany at the invitation of his counterpart in the German Federal Assembly Wolfgang Thierse.