Berlin [Germany], April 23: German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier arrived in Istanbul on Monday carrying a 60-kilo kebab skewer symbolizing stories of Turkish migration to Germany.
The owner of the snack bar that provided the kebab, Arif Keles, and several other guests travelled on the plane with the president.
"Someone from the Office of the Federal President called me, he wanted to come over for a coffee and told me about the idea of taking me along on the state visit. I just thought: What an honour!" Keles told news magazine Stern before the start of the trip.
After landing, he made his way to the German ambassador's summer residence, where he planned to serve his kebab to the guests at a reception that evening.
Other guests included Belit Onay, son of Turkish immigrants and mayor of Hanover since 2019, and the actor Adnan Maral, born in Eastern Anatolia, who came to Germany at the age of two and grew up inFrankfurt. Aydan Özoguz, vice president of the Bundestag, whose parents came from Istanbul in the early 1960s and settled in Hamburg as merchants, also travelled to Turkey.
The fact that Keles flew in with Steinmeier along with his kebab was also a topic of discussion in the Turkish media and mainly served as a treasure trove for headlines.
The newspaper Hürriyet, for example, wrote: "Surprise from Steinmeier: He comes to Turkey with 60 kilos of kebab." The online portal T24 commented: "Steinmeier's unusual visit - kebab and more." And the online medium Diken read: "Kebab diplomacy: German president in Turkey."
Steinmeier has honoured the achievements of the many Turks who have come to Germany since the 1960s, when they helped to fill the demand for labour and rebuild the country's post-war economy.
"They helped build our country, they made it strong and they belong at the heart of our society," he said on Monday at the start of his three-day trip to Turkey, referring to the almost 3 million people of Turkish descent living in Germany today.
"They are not people with a migrant background - Germany is a country with a migrant background."
In 1961, the governments in Bonn - the West German capital at the time - and Ankara signed a labour recruitment agreement. According to the Foreign Ministry, around 876,000 people came to Germany from Turkey on the basis of that "guest worker" agreement.
Steinmeier began his visit at Istanbul's historic Sirkeci train station, from where many Turks departed for Germany. There, he was greeted by the recently re-elected mayor of Istanbul Ekrem Imamoglu, who is seen as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan main rival.
Steinmeier is set to meet Erdogan on Wednesday in Ankara.
Source: Qatar Tribune