Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan heads to Germany in a rare official visit with a busy agenda, ranging from the situation in Syria to the arrest of German citizens, and the currency crisis in the European Union candidate country.

Berlin and Ankara, which have been at odds over a variety of issues for years, recently toned down their rhetoric, signaling a new phase in ties.

Erdogan said his country seeks to improve political and economic relations with Germany during his three-day visit that starts on Thursday.

“Our priority [in my visit] will be completely leaving behind the period experienced in recent years in our political ties,” he said on Sunday.

“In addition, it will be the steps that can be taken to enhance our economic ties on a mutually beneficial basis.”

Erdogan will meet Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Frank Walter Steinmeier during his visit.

Diplomatic flurry

The diplomatic traffic between Berlin and Ankara has already been busy in September.

Early in the month, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas held talks in Turkey with his counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu, expressing the desire for closer cooperation.

Last week, Turkish Finance Minister Berat Albayrak, Turkey’s Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan, and Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Sonmez were in Berlin meeting with Finance Minister Olaf Scholz and Economy and Energy Minister Peter Altmaier.

Mensur Akgun, a professor of international relations and a columnist, said the two countries seek to prioritise mutual strategic interests such as Syria and economic ties, rather than their differences.

“The relationship between the two countries is complex with many different aspects from the refugee aspect to entangled economic ties and millions of Turks living in Germany,” he told Al Jazeera.

“The Turkish government understands that Turkey will not be an EU member state anytime soon and seeks to put the relations with the bloc to a more realistic platform. The visit will help achieve this goal. The sides understand it is in their mutual interest to solve their issues,” Akgun added.

Post-coup crackdown

Tensions between the two countries mainly stem from purges and arrests of hundreds of thousands of people in Turkey after a July 2016 coup attempt that killed more than 300 people, including the plotters. German journalists and activists have been among those arrested.

Berlin has called the crackdown arbitrary, while Ankara denies its political influence on the judiciary.

Germany, the country with the largest Turkish diaspora in the world, banned gatherings of foreign politicians and their supporters within its borders before both Turkey’s 2017 constitutional referendum and presidential and parliamentary elections on June 24. Other EU member states, such as the Netherlands and Austria, followed Germany. The move infuriated Turkish authorities. 

Turkey and Germany have many reasons to work together. In addition to more than three million people of Turkish origin living in the country, the EU’s industrial locomotive is Turkey’s main economic and trade partner with bilateral trade at 37.6 billion euros ($43.6bn).

Plunging lira

The currency crisis Turkey is going through is also high on the agenda of Erdogan’s visit. The value of the lira has taken a nosedive since the beginning of the year, losing more than 40 percent against the US dollar amid macroeconomic concerns and a diplomatic showdown between Washington and Ankara.

The NATO allies increased tariffs on each other in August after Turkey’s judiciary refused to release an American pastor jailed on “terrorism” charges. Ankara has accused Washington of carrying out an “economic war” against Turkey and said its courts are independent.

Meanwhile, rumours of German financial aid to Turkey in August were denied by German officials.

“Turkey is not seeking economic aid, neither in our talks today nor will it do so in the talks that the president and the chancellor will hold,” Finance Minister Scholz said after meeting his counterpart Albayrak.

Another issue complicating relations is the three million Syrian refugees Turkey hosts, keeping them from journeying to Western Europe. A mass flow of refugees to Europe in 2015 created a massive humanitarian crisis and helped the rise of far-right politics on the continent.

Ankara also wants the EU to allow Turkish citizens to travel to the Schengen area without visas, and seeks German support on this issue.

‘Germany needs a stable Turkey’

Can Baydarol, an analyst on EU-Turkey relations, said it is not in the interests of Germany or the EU to have an unstable Turkey bordering Europe.

“Turkey’s instability would hit the EU both politically and economically. Germany is protecting itself by mending ties with and helping out Turkey. A banking crisis in Turkey would hit European banks and over 6,500 German companies making business in the country. Keeping Syrian refugees in Turkey is also a priority of Germany,” Baydarol said.

“Furthermore, Ankara is drifting from the West towards Russia and Germany is not happy with it. If Russia and Turkey become actual strategic partners, this might create a soft spot in the EU’s defence,” he said.

Ankara signed a deal to purchase S-400 advanced missile defence systems from Moscow last year despite objections from its Western allies. Russia is also building nuclear power plant in Turkey.

Moreover, Russia and Iran, which support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, and Turkey, which backs the moderate opposition, have been in close cooperation to find a solution to the Syrian conflict.

Their cooperation recently stopped a planned Syrian government offensive against the rebel-held province of Idlib and prevented a potential humanitarian disaster involving hundreds of thousands of refugees.

Follow Umut Uras on Twitter: @Um_Uras

A third woman stepped forward Wednesday through her attorney to lodge allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, accusing him and a friend of attending house parties where women – including herself – were sexually assaulted.

She specifically accuses Kavanaugh of spiking drinks with drugs to “target particular girls so they could be taken advantage of.”

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The woman, identified by her attorney, Michael Avenatti as Julie Swetnick, does not accuse Kavanaugh himself of sexually assaulting her in the affidavit. But she wrote that she witnessed him on several occasions “drink excessively and engage in highly inappropriate conduct, including being overly aggressive with girls and not taking ‘No’ for an answer. This conduct included the fondling and grabbing of girls without their consent.”

In the affidavit, Swetnick asserts Kavanaugh was present when she was the victim of a “gang rape” by multiple boys at one party. And she refers to Kavanaugh “a mean drunk” whom she witnessed acting “verbally abusive toward girls, including pressing girls against him without their consent,“ and “Grinding against girls and attempting to remove or shift girls’ clothing to expose private body parts.”

Swetnick is prepared to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Avenatti said, but he charged that the committee had failed to respond to that offer or his offer that Swetnick submit to polygraph testing.

On Wednesday, the committee acknowledged receiving Avenatti’s declaration and a spokesperson said lawyers were reviewing it.

The revelation of his client’s identity came after Avenatti, a hard-charging anti-Trump agitator, was accused in a viral Internet post of actually representing a fraud after being duped by a third party. Since Avenatti first made overtures about representing a Kavanaugh accuser, he said he was the subject of online threats and on Tuesday locked his Twitter account.

Avenatti depicted the episode as an intimidation attempt.

“Here’s my message to Donald Trump, Sen. Grassley, Sen. McConnell and their surrogates: you better be very very careful before you launch some smear campaign against my client who is 100 percent credible,” Avenatti told POLITICO. “Because if you do, I will do everything in my power to expose you for the fraud that you are.”

Avenatti posted on Twitter a photo of his client and her affidavit, and says she is a former government worker who still holds certain security clearances.

Avenatti posted on Twitter a photo of his client and her affidavit, and says she is a former government worker who still holds certain security clearances.

Asked if she would step forward publicly on Wednesday and submit to a media interview, Avenatti told POLITICO: “We’re going to wait and see how the day progresses.”

Avenatti previously told POLITICO he offered her testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee but was rebuffed and added that his client would make her allegations public even if the committee did not allow for her testimony.

“She is courageous, brave and honest. We ask that her privacy and that of her family be respected,” Avenatti wrote over Twitter.

The foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, the ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to Washington, and the director of Israel‘s Mossad spy agency have joined ranks in pushing for regime change in Iran.

Speaking alongside US National Security Adviser John Bolton and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir called for the overthrow of the Iranian government, saying the Islamic Republic was unlikely to change on its own volition.

“Unless the pressure internally is extremely intense, I don’t believe they will open up,” Jubeir said at the United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) conference in New York City, which was attended by states that opposed the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.

“How can we negotiate with a state that wants to kill us,” Jubeir said in remarks carried by UAE newspaper The National.

Saudi and Emirati officials welcomed Washington’s decision to abandon the 2015 Iran deal – known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – under which Iran agreed to curb its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief, it reported.

But Yousef al-Otaiba, the UAE’s ambassador to the US, said external pressure was needed and would be key in changing Iran’s course.

“I think any recalibaration of Iranian foreign policy will come from external policy,” said Otaiba, who added the isolation of Tehran must be backed up by European powers, Asian nations, as well as the United States.

“If a missile is launched at Saudi Arabia and the UAE what will the reaction be and how will we be defended?” he said.

“I ask that hypothetically but it’s not really hypothetical. The Gulf countries, Israel, and the countries in the immediate vicinity are the ones at immediate risk.”

‘Can’t allow another Lebanon’

Warning that Iran was orchestrating a takeover in Yemen, Otaiba said recent UN-led peace talks supposedly exposed Iran’s role in directing the Houthi leadership.

“We have a vested interest in ensuring what happened in Lebanon does not happen in Yemen,” said Otaiba, who blamed Iran for the failed peace talks in Geneva.

The talks, which would have been the first in nearly two years, were scheduled to take place in the Swiss city of Geneva on September 6 but the Houthi delegation failed to arrive, accusing the Saudi-UAE alliance fighting in Yemen of blocking them from travelling.

“Our analysis tells us it was based on instructions from Tehran that they did not turn up,” Otaiba said.

Brian Hook, the State Department’s special representative for Iran, also spoke at the summit and accused Iran of supplying the missiles fired by Houthi rebels into the kingdom and at the UAE.

“We’re accumulating risk in the Middle East by not getting at Iran’s proliferation,” he said.

“There is something brazen about this missile behaviour, they’re not even hiding it. This sort of escalation is deeply concerning and will be met with a swift and decisive response.”

Oil and weapons

Military analysts at IHS Jane have suggested Iran could be aiding the Houthis with parts or technology, but added it would be difficult for Tehran to ship whole missiles to Yemen.

Another possibility, they say, is the missiles were acquired by Yemen from North Korea before the current conflict.

Since its withdrawal from the Iran deal, the Trump administration has slapped biting sanctions on Tehran in order to choke its oil exports – the main source of income for the country.

Some of Tehran’s biggest oil customers appear to have succumbed to the US pressure with India – a major buyer of Iranian oil – cutting down on its imports.

However, top diplomats from France, Britain, Germany, China and Russia have agreed to establish a financial facility in the European Union to facilitate payments for Iranian imports and exports including oil.