Olaf Scholz did not wait for Recep Tayyip Erdogan to condemn his recent diatribe against Israel. Three days before receiving him in Berlin on Friday, November 17, the German chancellor described the Turkish president's recent comments that Israel "has been trying for seventy-five years to build a state whose legitimacy is being called into question by its own fascism" as "absurd".

"Israel is a country that respects human rights and international law, and is committed to acting accordingly," Scholz told a joint press conference with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in the German capital on Tuesday, November 14. "This is why the accusations against Israel are absurd," he added.

It's not usual to publicly condemn the words of a head of state you're about to receive. This strongly reflects the heightened tension surrounding Erdogan's visit to Berlin, his first since 2020 and notably the most contentious of his four trips to Germany as president since 2014, especially given the significant Turkish diaspora residing in the country.

In recent days, several community leaders have condemned Erdogan's visit. "Those who deny Israel's right to exist and even actively fight against it cannot be political partners for Germany," said Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. "Welcoming Erdogan is tantamount to slapping the Jews of Germany and Israel in the face," said Cahit Basar, spokesman for the Kurdish community in Germany.

Human rights associations and intellectuals also called for the visit to be canceled. "Since October 7, all the country's leaders have been saying that anti-Semitism has no place in Germany. When, a few days later, we welcome an anti-Semite like Erdogan, for whom Hamas is a 'liberation group', we wonder whether those who make such statements take them seriously, or whether they think that realpolitik comes first," said Burak Copur, Director of the Center for Radicalization and Prevention Research at the International University of Applied Sciences. In his view, the fact that the visit – scheduled to take place before the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 – has been maintained is both a form of "double standard" and an admission of weakness on the part of Berlin, which "recognizes just how much it needs Ankara on certain sensitive issues, such as migrants."

At the Chancellery, they are happy to maintain what is modestly described as a "working visit," during which Erdogan will be received by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, before having dinner with Scholz. "We always have difficult partners to deal with," explained Steffen Hebestreit, Scholz's spokesman, pointing out that Erdogan can also be a useful interlocutor in certain crises, as he showed when he tried to mediate between Russia and Ukraine.

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