and conflict which in our opinion gets too little attention these are our issues and i think they'll keep us busy over the next two years. he is not a fan and the nuclear deal is a big issue here the u.s. has renounced it europe including germany is trying to save it can the deal be saved not so that. about so i was convinced it can because we fear that if iran leaves the deal then the situation will escalate further. we don't want. it we don't want military conflict which this is. also not dot com and the entire region is a powder keg so everyone would do well to contribute to giving a negotiated deal a chance. and assurance of a calm to try to do that not just those of us signatories to the deal but the entire european union has been very clear again here you know and that's the right way everything else threatens escalation and threatens our security in europe.

that's why we're so involved and. it's who would want to survive a mission to save our g.n.p. once was a was a. thank you. or minder of our top story that we're following for you here on turkey's president a better one is in germany for a state visit aimed at mending ties with those ties came under severe strain following the two thousand six hundred failed coup in turkey it is a controversial visit and a big demonstration against it is due to take place in berlin later today. now president ed i want to chancellor merkel they are holding talks they're expected to give a press conference any minute and you say to us there is with us here in studio to talk about this press conference and said oh we should mention that at this press conference there's been some controversy ahead of it the former editor in chief of jim who. he is living in germany in exile he's a dissident journalist and he has been placed we've heard that he's been placed on

a list of so-called terrorists by the turkish government he had indicated that he wanted to come to this press conference and perhaps even ask a question to president which would have been seen as a provocation we're hearing reports now that he might not be coming to this press conference so what do you make of this. well this is a very interesting development of course in germany we know the press has a right to attend to press conferences ask all the questions they want to ask we have to we have to first understand what's happening why is you not going but no matter what there will be there will be even if john does not go there will be enough journalists to confront president are two on plus we also should not forget about the state banquet tonight there are also going to be people like a man who was also well in quick quote victim of arda won because he published

a poem that was offensive yes but again it was freedom of speech at the end of the day and or green politician jim there is going. to be going to the state banquet so it's. even if john and art does not go to the press conference or will still be confronted with hard questions at the press conference i believe and also behind closed doors it's a sign of just how controversial this visit is and we have our chief political editor michelle was also following that press conference for us she's in front of the chancellor michelle if you can hear us do you know any more about whether the journalist turkish journalist will be attending this press conference or not. but we're hearing that he won't which of course is quite a significant development that would have sparked a diplomatic response no doubt there was an expectation that out of one wouldn't take that very well even having him in the room let alone him asking any question

now we're hearing that sound and took that decision himself he wasn't barred from going to side that himself and we're actually hoping to get in touch with him to get more details on why he took that decision let me give you something between an educated guess an analysis for now i mean clearly for him to not attend there must have been some kind of conversation that resulted in the feeling that it's simply not worth this that more damage could potentially be done than actually getting in terms of positive feedback or positive development out of this is known as somebody who is absolutely unafraid to confront the turkish president so we expect that there must be a rather significant reason underlying that and for his role and for being so unafraid of challenging him he also found himself quite clearly on that list of people that the government would like to see extradited to turkey clearly that will

not happen but it just shows that there are issues that simply cannot be bridged whether either one would like to see better economic relations or not. issues in the room that need a much more clear cut resolution and it will be very interesting to hear what that there were at least be some kind of reference to that circumstance we certainly expect that to be the subject of the questions coming from the term press here. you know sado we heard michelle and they're talking about the possibility of not coming to this press conference you were just touching on this as well mind our viewers who might just be joining us why this visit by president one is so controversial why just such a touchy issue well the visit is really really important because the two countries have had a lot of problems in the past year this has this has been the diplomatic problems the german citizens being imprisoned in turkey german politicians not being allowed

on the in the nato air base in turkey. president. using allegations saying germany is using nazi methods so there were a lot of a lot of reasons for the two countries to have a lot of tension but these two countries are connected closely with the economic relations more than three million people with turkish origin living in germany the refugee deal that has been signed between the e.u. and turkey so there are a lot of a lot of issues that tired these countries and despite all the problems they want to move ahead they want to take a step further and overcome these problems so that's why this visit is really really important but at the same time for germany the most important thing the first priority is the five german citizens that are in prison in turkey to be set

free but from what we're experiencing right now john didn't are not attending the press conference this is also showing that actually the visit has not started off at a good point all right so a difficult relationship but two countries that really need each other michel are coming back to you at the chancery if you can hear us. you know you were talking here about as we said of a very difficult relationship between germany and turkey but do you get the idea with some of the voices that we've heard in the past few months that the high level visits that we've seen the fact that germany is in a way the criticism is rolling out the red carpet for president and one that that this relationship is on the mend. no we've got some clear signals also coming from the foreign ministry in advance and also from the president. who of course is a former foreign minister and you can certainly still tell that a softening of rhetoric simply will not be enough to put these relations back on an even track there might be

a much softer watching coming from president one there might be the wish to talk clearer to each other to find more harmony in that relationship again but in the end there's a clear signal here from berlin that he will be judged by his actions and not by his words and they might sound more soft but at the same time we have that issue not just of chanda and we have widespread arbitrary arrests in turkey we have five german citizens being held essentially as something like hostages in turkish prisons and we have clear interference here by the organization which basically oversees the moms who are sent from turkey here which have been caught out i would say on several occasions of trying to get information from about turks who were here fed back to the turkish government there are suspected also of something of like a propaganda organization in parts for the turkish president so these are very very

deep issues of questions of interference in german society also during those elections a year ago where we had president out of one basically recommending to germans of turkish descent not to vote for angela merkel's party not to vote for any of the major parties and video injecting some kind of down into the party system here in germany and these are not issues that are easy to bridge at the same time the german chancellor knows she needs turkey she can't afford an unstable country on the fringes of the european union the e.u. can't afford that and it is on the. border to syria so it's a very important factor in stabilizing the situation so that where we go from bilateral relations to the big picture of the global political game a lot at stake here but certainly no easing of these tensions really tangible here in berlin the meeting is also rather short you know i mean we're waiting for the

press conference but we expect them to not meet for any longer than an hour just to put that into perspective going after met the russian president putin for several hours the last time she saw him so that i would expect that to have been a much franco much more open exchange than the rather tight choreography that we're seeing here bill and today ok we heard michelle and there say a very clear no to these this relationship is getting better to being on the mend and yet we also heard the on this litany of controversies that these two countries have had we've also heard that they need each other we should say that the backdrop to all of this is that turkey is embroiled in the moment and at the moment in a very deep economic crisis how much does turkey need germany to get out of this crisis well turkey needs germany turkey needs europe having trouble with the with the u.s. again over a imprisoned pastor in turkey and. it's really difficult for turkey

to really isolating itself internationally basically and it has this deep economy crisis going on the inside and is isolating itself so for for our two one actually this visit to germany was really maybe kind of a place to breathe that's why it's like we're talking earlier we had visits german foreign minister was in on her the turkish economy was the minister was in berlin so the meetings didn't start so it's just something of a charm offensive turkey's looking for a friend in difficult times turkey looking for a friend in difficult times but. is actually not taking the right steps to find this friend ok what steps what it what is he looking for here what is it looking to get in berlin is this financial aid is this promise of support well he is looking for definitely something to help him with the economy even getting a positive signals from germany or getting. the security that

german german companies would would be investing in turkey some of them are even thinking about pulling out even more than they already have so for turkey it's really really important to establish trust. and to show that turkey actually wants german investments wants germany support and of course yes germany needs turkey for the refugee deal but turkey needs germany as well so they are very closely knit and they have to find a way to fix the problem and what's really interesting is before i go on start of this visit to to germany he said he wants to leave the problems they were having behind but they seem to be here exactly as we see that's not what's happening well one of the reasons these two countries are closely linked as you said santa is because there are so many people of turkish descent living here in germany some of the supporters for everyone will be out in the streets today but also many of us

detractors many of us critics and our correspondent is out covering the protests for us let's see if we can bring him in there he is outside the main train station you can't get very close to the chance really a chance or a chance to review either at the moment and give us an idea of what you've been seeing and hearing there. yes absolutely right we are in front of main station which is directly opposite of the chancery and this is the closest a normal person would get to the champs league all the governmental district today as everything has been completely sealed off though several rallies going on around the town one has been just finished here the relayed by several german journalist groups. one of them being a reporters without borders all the german journalist as is here together with them to see international human rights group and they. made some campaign banners but you can see behind me right now which is going to send around the city today these banners saying let me read them out to you why are peaceful protests suppressed and

turkey all the up on that saying why are human rights defenders in turkey imprisoned for no reason and metis it's messages like this they want to try to open the door to it to make clear what their main problem is with turkey. right now in that these are the human rights issues in turkey at the moment especially the imprisonment of journalists. the nonexistence of for free press in germany in turkey right now and what we're going to see today to some of the rallies of the human rights group and the kurdish activists and even turkish activists which are going to take place of this afternoon well but we also mention that everyone does have a number of supporters among them very strong a turkish community here in germany more than three million people of turkish descent what are we going to see from his supporters. as you already said there are about three million people in germany of took his

dissent and many of them and this this call community is absolutely divided into a pro well to juan and critics as they say took this community. is so but also the house people are reaching people of the elevated community which are highly critical against the other one government. but also many people who are very big fans of the folks president who say this is all real president that's the man who gave us all pride back and this is also one of the reason by. the turkish president or them on whenever he comes here to germany also tries to address these people which he's going to do tomorrow in cologne and that we're going to see one of the biggest pro-al to wand rallies doing this visit. is set to open the great mosque of cologne nobody really knows what actually is going to have to happen there as the organization which is running this small mosque and who was which is

organizing the rally didn't really give out any information on what they are planning so nobody really knows what's going to happen tomorrow at these big protests pro and against out of wanding cologne tomorrow and it's the same consequence actually for the protests which are going to happen here today in berlin there's one big rally in the afternoon by out of one critiques but there are several pro out of one release two and. more than four thousand police are out on the streets today just to make sure that these two groups don't really meet. and we're going to know you have been able to talk to some of the protesters who have been taking to the streets will take to the streets today what have they been saying jeanne what do they want to see the german government now say to president or one where they expecting here. it's in the end two messages they want to bring across one of them is of course that they're highly critical against the way how the turkish president is treating his own country how he's treating.

freedom of press how is fishing journalists always treating critics in the country especially since the fate of two thousand and sixteen since then thousands of people have been imprisoned in turkey on it many of them have never ever seen it drops that since then among them prison people also german nationals german journalists we have seen several that before and. this of course has been one of the issues here at this rally of the german journalists association on reporters without borders they're saying be possible but the german chancellor and the german president are treating the turkish president who is responsible for the imprisonment of german nationals and german journalists in turkey which so much pomp and circumstance in the end they say it is a big problem that. germany and the german government are talking to the turkish president and that they are keeping contact and to dialogue but they

say it's a big problem but he's been treated with a state visit with the red carpet pomp and circumstance even the state banquet that he's treated with much honor and symbolism and they say this is just not the way we should treat a president who treat ourselves we treat journalists and german nationals in such a bad way all right that message and driving them onto the streets today our correspondent well but they developed for us at the central train station where protest is taking place at the moment but thank you we'll be coming back to you a little bit later in the program. and for viewers just joining us you're saying pick. on the right hand side of your screen there that is a press conference that we're expecting to take place here here the live pictures between the president at one and chancellor merkel they've been holding a working lunch and they were supposed to come out to speak to the press about ten fifteen minutes ago but it appears their lunch might be running a little bit late plenty of issues as we've heard for them to discuss we will be going live to that press conference as soon as the two leaders come out as soon as

we see them but for now we have saved us that are with us here in our studio to talk more about what is on the agenda say that we heard rupert there talking about the different voices the criticism that we've heard of president anyone but also the support within the turkish community you know how divided are turks in germany because this is been one of the controversial points is the influence that president added one has on people of turkish descent living here in germany well yes the turkish community here is very divided yesterday actually we were in quite stark talking to people and there is a neighborhood here in berlin with a big different turkish community exactly it's actually known as the heart of the turkish community here in berlin and people are extremely divided some are really proud that he's coming they see him as a big leader that has modernized turkey that has built roads so that has really brought turkey into the international arena if you will. others are of course. watching other news other than turkish media they are following what's happening in

germany they're following what's being written in other news outlets and they are aware of all the other problems that are happening in turkey they're aware of human rights issues the oppression how dawn has become more and more it's across it so they're able to view all these things they're seeing that parliamentarians are in prison so people are very very divided here in germany and you can see with also with these demonstrations that we're just talking about you can see the division that we see in turkey is also being reflected here. here in germany on the streets with the pro and anti are two one groups and it's also being reflected into the relationships of people here and that's especially important for everyone because we should mention that around half of people of turkish descent who live here are actually turkish passport holders so that means that they also have a voice in elections and more importantly the constitutional referendum that gave president added one more power

a lot of turks here voted in favor the majority voted yes so what do we take away from that but that the majority support at a one or is that much more nuanced than that well of course there are supporters of yes definitely and we have to understand there is this feeling of still for some turks that are actually pro are they still don't have that feeling of belonging here in germany so it's easy for them to say well he is already leader and not the german politicians here so they feel more closely connected to to him and they feel proud because he's being well more outspoken but we also have to remember he's actually the first turkish politician that realized the vote potential here and he is the one who made it available for people to say ok i'm i'm a turkish citizen living in germany and i have a right to vote so he made it possible for these people he made them visible and that's what counts for something for them and we saw some stunning images yesterday of pro supporters of no one pro heir to one turks here living in berlin running up

to try to get an image a picture of it or one but they were too far back and they they were saying you know we want to see our president just goes to show you how much they identify with president edwin as as their leader now on the other hand we've seen a lot of german lawmakers be very critical of this visit and indeed yesterday as president everyone was arriving here in germany they were holding. a debate rather on his visit you know how much support is there in chancellor merkel's government for this visit even goforth well i think there's a lot of criticism there's a lot of criticism and. well you know it's a very it's a very difficult. difficult position i believe for the german government because you have to in one way to keep on talking with someone who you know does not have the same values as you do but is still a very important partner that you actually cannot ignore so basically you have to find some kind of a common ground without. without losing your perspective or without losing your

values here so i believe it's very very difficult for the german government and actually this whole state visit that has been a huge discussion in germany does he deserve a state visit or not some of c.p.u. politicians they say well this state visit does not only honor add on but also the turkish nation but at the end of the day we know are gone he's the leader who can really use things for his benefit at home a bit of a tightrope walk for the german government i think that for people who are joining us i just want to remind them that on the right hand corner of their screen there we're looking at pictures of a press conference expected to take place shortly that is between president ever the one and chancellor angela merkel they've been holding a working lunch discussing various items and they will be speaking to the press shortly we will be listening in live to that as soon as those two leaders arrive you can see the press here gathered german and also as we've heard some turkish media allowed to ask questions but we will be going live to that press conference

as soon as it gets started we're a bit delayed on that about fifteen minutes now but we're hoping to see those two leaders arrive at any moment. now as we've heard everyone's visit is highly controversial in part because of accusations that the turkish president has leveled against germany and did all these little bower spoke with yogen hotties a foreign policy expert with germany's governing c.d.u. party the conservatives to get his view on the turkish leader. mr hart president out of the. characterized germany as a fascist country he holds german citizens journalists hostage he doesn't respect the rule of law how would you characterize the present. president the other one is probably wanted to that things that he gained do all things alone i think also things that he has not so many people around him that give him it wise to what to do and sometimes such leaders go into dead ends with their policy and

what we see in turkey today in politics in civil society and also in economic terms is a little bit like a dead end. turkey is economically standing with its back against the wall is president out of one coming to germany or charm offensive. we not have to love him but we know that. turkey and germany have common interests and international politics and security issues and we want to have a better life for turkish people we we expect there do a lot of germans after these people left the country and that we want to have a good future for the country and therefore it's necessary and good that we talk with the president at all on also about several things where we have concerns what you consider mr advani a reliable partner. reliable in relative terms yes i think we have

several fields where we can rely on him he is a partner in nato. as it was before but we also have to discuss some critical issues publicly but maybe also more of those behind closed doors thank you mr hart. all right you're going hard there are foreign policy advisers for chancellor merkel c.d.u. party you were watching this with me what did you make of what mr howard had to say when he was talking about people advising ardo on that was actually a very good point because we see that people are around him are basically mainly. are let's say shy about. saying what they think so basically the advisers around are to on are not really in a strong position so it's also that also reflects i believe on the diplomatic

relations because our go on is actually. acting the way he acts inside of turkey also in the international arena so when the german government or the u.s. government gets a taste of this then that's when the relationship start getting very very tense we heard you're going to there when asked is president in a one a reliable partner he said well in some areas what do you think of that is he well well he has to be because like i said he germany and turkey do need each other of course yes turkey is a nato member but there we are also seeing some problems for example there's still this discussion going on about turkey buying the s four hundred missiles from russia which is not compatible with with nato so it's turkey is a were is and should be a reliable partner for the e.u. but right now there are a lot of challenges in that area we've talked a lot about what turkey might be looking to get out of this visit what president

are the ones in here is what about in germany were saying both sides need each other what does germany need from turkey well germany needs a stable turkey that's clear that's what the german government is also voicing they've been saying that from the beginning when turkey started having these comic problems these financial issues germany said well we need a stable turkey why does germany. stable turkey well of course there is the the refugee issue which is really really crucial turkey is hosting more than three million syrian refugees and with the e.u. deal that turkey made it has been really blocking syrian refugees from leaving turkey and coming to europe and that's really important actually is an agreement that the e.u. signed with turkey on slowing the flow of refugees so this is an important one it is an important one and they also need each other and in solving the problem in syria turkey has become an important player there so you and

turkey germany and turkey do need each other and a lot of in a lot of respects and germany and the e.u. need a stable turkey economically as well right correct yes yes of course it has to be has to be a comically stable turkey be like we we spoke earlier a little bit there are more than seven thousand german companies invested in turkey they are bound together in. financial oh i just have to jump in here set up because i see here on our screen the chancellor merkel and president are the one are just arriving this is the long awaited press conference and let's listen to what they have to say. mind. don one town it is and gentleman. stuff i would like. them to do they got through and become. president and his delegation on another

visit to the federal chancellor right and i think the opportunity of having a chance for extensive just is very important as it also provides an opportunity to listen to us which are more contentious as well as discussing. yes there are a lot of things we have in common germany and turkey half the year is enjoying a close relation we are nato allies. and we want to have a number of important joint interests.