A joint press conference held in Ankara by Turkey’s leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan and visiting German counterpart Friedrich Merz was on October 30 not without tensions between the host and guest, though sparks did not fly.

Merz was visiting Turkey for the first time as German Chancellor. He blandly stated that he regards Turkey as a close partner of the European Union and wishes to develop bilateral economic relations.

"I personally, and the German government, see Turkey as a close partner of the European Union. We want to continue smoothing the way to Europe," Merz said at the press call. Turkey has been attempting to join the European bloc for decades.

Merz added that he and Erdogan spoke about migration and desired to achieve further progress on the repatriation of failed asylum seekers. The EU pays Turkey a small fortune every year to ensure its external borders are not overwhelmed by migrants attempting to reach the continent via its borders.

Merz and Erdogan exchanged some hard words over the plight of Gaza.

Erdogan said Germany showed ignorance over Israel's "genocide" and attacks in Gaza, while Germany’s leader said Berlin had stood by Israel since it suffered the October 7, 2023 cross-frontier attack by Hamas and that he believed the Israelis had since exercised their right to self-defence.

"It would have taken only one decision to avoid countless unnecessary casualties. Hamas should have released the hostages earlier and laid down its arms," said Merz.

He concluded that he hoped the war was coming to an end with the US-brokered and Turkey-backed ceasefire deal. bne IntelliNews has looked at how Turkey played its role in a “coordinated squeeze” that forced Hamas to surrender and paved the way to plaudits for US Donald Trump as a peacemaker.

A UN inquiry has assessed that Israel has committed genocide in the Gaza enclave. Israel has rejected all genocide allegations as politically motivated, while claiming its military takes steps to minimise civilian harm in Gaza.

In other remarks, Erdogan referred to the potential for Nato allies Turkey and Germany to focus on joint defence industry projects. Merz lately cleared a deal that will see Turkey pay billions of dollars to acquire Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets. British PM Keir Starmer, who met with Erdogan in Ankara on October 27, this week confirmed the deal. The UK, like Germany, is a member of the Eurofighter consortium.

Erdogan at the press conference also reiterated Ankara's longstanding wish to join the European Union.

Merz did not address that point directly with any real detail on prospects. Instead, he talked of Turkey as a close partner to the EU, outlined his hopes that bilateral economic relations could be developed, and mentioned the transport sector and migration as two areas where there could be more collaboration.

On the day of Merz’s visit to Turkey, The Economist published an article headlined “Turkey’s president is moving to eviscerate democracy”.

On the eve of the visit, the World Justice Project published its latest Rule of Law Index, which showed Turkey down one place compared to last year. It fell to 118th among the 143 countries assessed.

Also ahead of the visit, Human Rights Watch’s director general Philipp Frisch called on Merz not to ignore Turkey’s assault on rights and democracy.

The Merz visit also coincided with a new academic study that warned that the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) is in danger of legitimising Turkey’s authoritarian turn by leaning too heavily on subsidiarity, a legal doctrine that tells the Strasbourg judges to defer to national authorities if those authorities appear to apply the court’s standards.