meeting so conciliatory words here from our don side he said he is thankful to chancellor merkel and mr steinmeier the german president for this invite and that it was overall a successful visit it helped intensify german turkish relations and the friendship he said they were talking about important issues the talks were open and sincere so he was trying to sell this visit from his point of view as a success but as you already mentioned he also used the opportunity to put out some critical issues he said for example that germany needs to do more when it comes to siena phobia islamophobia he brought up the issue of miss wood again a player with turkish roots a very famous player who quit the german national team after the world cup did back row after there was a lot of discussion and missed it is for example said you know when i score i'm considered to be a german but if i'm not playing that well i'm suddenly a turkey. and this whole miss what is it a debate was a huge debate in turkey as well and has championed a discussion or a narrative so to say against what it sees as growing islam phobia in e

welcome as you say the honor guard the invitation extended to him by the president friends walter steinmeier after mr was reelected in june this year and one imagines that invitation was a very welcome one when it was made to turkey because of course now the economy in turkey suffering its worst crisis in fifteen years you've explained there the devaluation of the currency mr owens government at loggerheads with the trumpet ministration and so on and just a year ago erdogan was describing mrs merkel and her coalition as enemies of turkey well a lot to rebuild in that case and perhaps they will make a start here it's not universally welcome here in germany this visit though there are lots of protests lots of demonstrations taking place in berlin today a very heavily secured capital city this demonstrations against human rights against freedom freedom of press issues in turkey the detention of german activists and journalists during the crackdown that followed that failed coup in two thousand and sixteen and people concerned about the general backsliding of democracy after that constitutional referendu

frank—walter steinmeier told president erdogan that he was worried about german citizens currently imprisoned in turkey along with large numbers of other opposition figures. mrwith protests outside and inside the official events. bill hayton reports. it was not exactly all smiles. president recep tayyip erdogan's visit is intended to normalise relations between germany and turkey, but there is clearly some way still to go. the two governments fell out following an attempted coup in turkey in 2016 and the arrests of thousands of president recep tayyip erdogan's opponents. one of his loudest critics, the former head of the german greens party has been vilified in the media. but even germany's head of state has some strong words. translation: as the president of this country, i am of course worried and nervous about german citizens imprisoned in turkey for political reasons. i'm also worried about journalists, union workers, it and intellectuals, still in prison. we discuss individual cases this morning. i hope, mr president, that we are unable to return to everyday business without some action. earlier on friday, president recep tayyip erdogan had faced one of