The testimony of expatriates in Germany

Prime Minister Erdoğan's visit to Germany, made at Chancellor Merkel's invitation, produced data to be taken as a reference both for Turkish-German relations and for the level Turkey's relations with the EU have reached.

The large and enthusiastic crowds that greeted the Prime Minister in front of his hotel in Berlin presented a sight that Germans are probably not very familiar with even during their own election campaigns. It is also very clear that this is not only about the Turks living there, because there had previously been no such goodwill toward any other leader from Turkey either.

It is seen that as attacks on his person at home and abroad increase, interest in and loyalty to Erdoğan increases all the more. For those living abroad, and especially in Germany, it is not at all hard to understand this situation. Over the last 11 years it is they who have been affected first-hand by Turkey's outward image. They see, by actually feeling and living it, where Turkey has come from and where it has arrived in 11 years.

Every time Prime Minister Erdoğan is in a political dispute, they come running with an enthusiasm and excitement as if paying a great debt of loyalty. They come to bear witness; they bear witness to how Turkey has been governed for 11 years, to how, thanks to this administration, they hold their heads high abroad, and to how the country they most probably had to flee for political or economic reasons has now, thanks to this man, become a center of attraction.

This unprecedented enthusiasm constitutes a reality that German politics too is increasingly obliged to take into account. Whatever kind of debate there is about Turkey, this scene also tells something, and in the end it is this that has to be taken into account more.

At the press conference, Chancellor Merkel sends greetings, through Erdoğan, to these crowds, many of whom are her own citizens as well. As Erdoğan conveys her greetings in the hall with all sincerity, the communication he establishes also lays bare the new reality that exists between Turkey's and Germany's politics.

In fact, if not her political line exactly, what Merkel has in common with Erdoğan is that she came to power by increasing her votes in three consecutive elections and has been embraced by the German people. Although Merkel came to power by increasing her votes in the elections held at the end of 2013, she could not govern alone because of the distribution of votes and the threshold. Since her former partner, the FDP, remained below the threshold, she turned to the search for another coalition and, forming a coalition with the main opposition party SPD rather than a small party, set up a very strong government in terms of representation.

Since the SPD's attitude toward Turkey has long been known to be positive, it is expected that this coalition will influence its attitude toward Turkey's accession to the EU in a positive direction, and positive steps have indeed begun to be taken slowly. In the first step, although dual citizenship, one of the Turks in Germany's greatest expectations, has not yet been realized exactly as they wanted, even the removal of the obligation to choose at the age of 18 is an important step.

However, as the head of the UETD, Süleyman Çelik, who has recently achieved very important things in the organization of Turks in Europe, put it, if 50 percent of the Turks in Germany had voted for the CDU, Merkel would be governing alone. The Greens, on the other hand, suffered a loss of votes. The Green deputies' support for the Gezi events led them to lose Turkish votes to a great extent.

The Turks, who though few in number in German politics have become very critical in votes because of the political distribution, now have this critical position better appreciated, and German politics takes it more into account with each passing day. In the last elections, the Turks reached the figure of 11 deputies in the 611-seat parliament for the first time, and for the first time a Turkish minister also entered the German cabinet.

From the Prime Minister's visit to Germany, just as before Brussels, some people entertained strange expectations. Contrary to these expectations, again just as in Brussels, Prime Minister Erdoğan delivered his messages with greater self-confidence. That the German press regarded as an achievement the fact that, in response to this self-confidence, the prime minister did not criticize Germany much should itself be illuminating enough about the balance of the relationship.

One of the most important messages the Berlin visit gave is that Turkey's determination in the EU process continues and that the slowdowns stem not from Turkey but from the EU's own internal problems. With Hollande replacing Sarkozy in France, and with the Social Democrats becoming a governing partner in Germany, the shift of attitude toward Turkey to the positive has created a better opportunity for Turkey to show its determination in this matter.

Second, owing to its Syria and Egypt policies, Turkey is in a far more advanced position even in terms of the values that Europe represents and claims. At a point where all EU countries together could not take in 30 thousand refugees, and could agree only to 18 thousand while setting a thousand and one conditions, Turkey acts with the moral superiority of hosting 700 thousand refugees, without putting forward any conditions, with a thoroughly humanitarian approach.

Turkey asks nothing for itself from the EU. It challenges the EU on the matters in which it is assertive, and invites it to greater sensitivity toward the suffering of victims and the oppressed.

Undoubtedly these images are images of the new Turkey that will increasingly become habitual.