BERLIN: Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Tuesday that Recep Tayyip Erdogan's accusation of fascism against Israel was "absurd", days before the German leader is to host the Turkish president for talks in Berlin.
Israel "is a democracy" and "a country that is bound to human rights and international law and acts accordingly. Therefore, the accusations against Israel are absurd," Scholz told a press conference.
He was responding to a question about Erdogan's comment on Friday that Israel's legitimacy was "being questioned due to its own fascism".
Erdogan is due to hold talks with Scholz and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin.
But the visit, Erdogan's first since 2020, is proving controversial over the Turkish leader's accusations against Israel and his characterisation of Hamas as "liberators" fighting for their land.
Erdogan is a vocal critic of Israel's war against Gaza-rulers Hamas, triggered after the Islamist gunmen's deadly attack on October 7 that Israel said killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
The Turkish leader has accused Israel of committing war crimes with its heavy bombardments of Gaza, where the death toll has past 11,240, according to the Hamas-run health authorities.
Defending the planned visit, Scholz's spokesman Steffen Hebestreit acknowledged on Monday that Germany "always had difficult partners whom we have to deal with".
But he underlined that it was important to keep talking to make progress on various issues.
Following his visit to Berlin, Erdogan also plans to travel to Egypt and host Iran's president in the coming weeks.
Speaking at the press conference with Scholz on Tuesday, Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis confirmed that Erdogan was due to visit his country on December 7, building on a rare meeting between the two on the margins of the NATO summit in Vilnius in July.
"We will try to take a step of progress in Greek-Turkish rapprochement, which had began in the last months and which has brought some positive results," said Mitsotakis.
"That's exactly the progress that we'll try to capitalise on during the visit of President Erdogan to Athens on December 7."
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