German president arrives in Turkey, to visit German troops

KAHRAMANMARAŞ

German President Joachim Gauck watches traditional ice cream show in Kahramanmaraş. AA Photo

German President Joachim Gauck arrived in Turkey late yesterday as he kicked off a four-day visit to Turkey.

The president will meet today with German soldiers deployed to operate Patriot missile defense systems in the southern province of Kahramanmaraş, where 300 German soldiers have been deployed along with two units of Patriot defense systems and a tent city built for Syrian refugees.

Germany, the Netherlands and the United States supplied ground-to-air missile batteries, which Turkey requested after a series of cross-border shellings from Syria in 2012, including an attack that killed five civilians.

Gauck will also hold meetings with President Abdullah Gül and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on April 28.

Accompanied by his wife, the federal Cabinet’s first-ever minister of Turkish origin, Aydan Özoğuz, and Turkish and German ambassadors, Gauck tasted the famous Maraş ice cream at the hotel he is staying at late April 26 and used a cleaver to cut it.