Migration Binds: Turkey's and Germany's Leaders Meet Despite Deep Differences on the Israel-Hamas War

Introduction

Since the May 2023 elections, Turkey has sought to mend fences with liberal democracies in the West, among them Germany. Yet, Germany’s and Turkey’s differing official views of the Israel-Hamas war1 — where Turkey has shown solidarity with Hamas and Germany has sided with Israel—have complicated the reconciliation. This difference in views could have been a well-argued reason for Germany to postpone an already agreed meeting between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Chancellor Olaf Scholz. However, the two leaders met in Berlin on November 17, largely to discuss the two countries’ interdependence on one major issue: migration.