PM Yıldırım to meet with Chancellor Merkel during visit to Germany

Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım will meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday at the Chancellery in Berlin as part of his visit to the European country to attend a security conference in Munich.

Merkel spokesman Steffen Seibert said Monday that the two leaders will be discussing bilateral relations as well as recent international and regional developments.

Relations between the two countries have been strained since the defeated coup in Turkey last year, as Turkish politicians criticized their German counterparts for failing to show strong solidarity with Ankara against the attempted military takeover and the decision in Germany to ban rallies by Turkish ministers and the president last year.

Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalın said last week that the Turkish government is hoping for the "opening of a new page in Turkish-German relations," noting diplomatic efforts and the forming of a new coalition in Berlin.

"We expect the next German government to take steps, realizing how important an ally Turkey is, how critical a central role it, as a country, has in the region," Kalın said in Ankara, as reports showed the main CDU and SPD parties in Berlin had clinched a coalition deal.