News from Berlin

Strategic Cultural Dialogue between Germany and Turkey

June 23rd, 2014
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News from Berlin - Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier travelled to Istanbul on June 20, to meet his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoğlu for a Strategic dialogue. On Saturday, Steinmeier opened the “German-Turkish Youth Bridge“.

One of the main topics, which have been discussed in Istanbul, was the rise of ISIS in the North of Iraq, a region which borders Turkey. This gives particular importance to this meeting as the rise of ISIS extremists is making the Middle East even more unstable and could spill over to eastern Turkey. Over 70 highly ranked government officials and other experts from both countries, have discussed the situation intensively as well as international, bilateral and terrorism issues. The foreign ministers and their delegations also went to the Çirağan Palace by the Bosporus river, a historical symbol of Turkish Europeanism.

Steinmeier also made clear that he wanted to use his visit to Turkey to enhance German-Turkish cultural relations even more. He went to the Tarabya Cultural Academy to open a German-Turkish youth program, a cultural exchange of students and artists from the two countries. There are almost 4 million Turks in Germany, the largest Turkish community outside of Turkey in the world, which is why the two countries have close cultural ties. It is good to see cultural exchanges being taken seriously by such high ranked officials, as it means they truly believe in Cultural Diplomacy.

 

News from Berlin – Berlin Global