President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday sent a message to a ceremony for the 10th anniversary of the establishment of Turkish-German University. The Turkish leader praised deep-rooted ties with Germany and said Türkiye attached importance to relations that have “military, cultural and humanitarian aspects” with “friend and ally” Germany.
Erdoğan and then German Chancellor Angela Merkel inaugurated the new campus of the university in 2020.
The public university was established in 2013 with a curriculum in Turkish, English and German through joint funding by Germany and Türkiye.
Though they came at odds at times over a number of issues, including a perceived lack of counterterrorism cooperation, Turkish-German ties have been strong.
In his message, Erdoğan praised the fact that the university's new library also opened on Monday and is named after Mevlüde Genç, the late Turkish-German woman who lost her daughters and relatives in a neo-Nazi attack on their homes in Germany’s Solingen in 1993. “I commemorate the memory of Mrs. Mevlüde Genç and her late family members we lost in the Solingen disaster,” Erdoğan said.
The president stated that more than 3 million Turks living in Germany were part of a “humanitarian bridge” between the two countries. “German citizens residing in Türkiye and our commercial relations growing daily are the most obvious indicators of our friendship. Turkish-German University, which added an academic aspect to our cooperation, now has five faculties, a college and two institutes, taking confident steps to fulfill its accomplishments. I sincerely believe that friendly relations between Türkiye and Germany will only grow stronger,” Erdoğan stated.
Ankara and Berlin are major trading partners, as Germany has been a top Turkish import source and export destination for decades. The two countries also share deep cultural ties due to Germany's Turkish diaspora. In addition, Türkiye is among the top tourism destinations for Germans, apart from hosting thousands of German expatriates.
