Speaking at a joint news conference with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the Presidential Complex in the capital Ankara on Wednesday, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Germany and Türkiye should remove restrictions on the Turkish defense industry.

Germany drastically reduced military exports to Türkiye after the latter launched counterterrorism operations against the PKK in Syria. Ankara has also complained that Germany was blocking the country's acquisition of Eurofighter jets. He said their countries should focus on joint production projects in the future.

Erdoğan also voiced concerns over the activities of terrorist groups in Europe and said they expected German authorities to do more in the fight against terrorism. Several prominent members of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) received asylum in Germany, especially in the aftermath of July 15, 2016, in Türkiye by the group.

The president also touched upon the issue of the Palestine-Israel conflict, in which he disagreed with the German president. Türkiye has repeatedly condemned Israel's atrocities in Gaza and said Hamas is a resistance group, unlike Germany's solid support to Israel. "Efforts of Israeli administration to hide its atrocities, massacres committed in Gaza should not be allowed," Erdoğan said. He added that Türkiye would continue to intensify its efforts to achieve a cease-fire in Gaza and ensure uninterrupted humanitarian aid reaching the Palestinian people.

Answering a question about the Palestine-Israel conflict, Erdoğan said "our German friends" should see the current state of Gaza, where thousands were killed and infrastructure was razed to the ground.

For his part, Steinmeier said Turkish-German relations had a long history, noting the presence of 3 million Turks living in Germany. He said Germany and Türkiye were going through tough economic times and they needed to strengthen their ties. He said both countries were indispensable for each other.

Steinmeier arrived in Türkiye on Monday and his first stopover was Istanbul, an unusual schedule for a visiting president who traditionally meets first with the head of state. In Istanbul, he met everyone from renowned author Orhan Pamuk to former President Abdullah Gül before departing for Gaziantep, one of the provinces hit by 2023 earthquakes in Türkiye's south. Erdoğan himself was not available on Monday as he made a landmark visit to Iraq. He spent the next day meeting children on the occasion of Children's Day and attending a funeral in Istanbul.

His visit, the first to Türkiye since he took office in 2017, was met with protests almost everywhere he visited over Berlin's stand on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Activists staged protests near the president in Ankara, Istanbul and Gaziantep, blaming Germany for contributing to "murders" of Palestinians in Gaza by Israel, a close ally of Germany.

In Ankara on Wednesday, he first paid respects to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Republic of Türkiye, by visiting his mausoleum Anıtkabir. Then, he visited Ankara University, where German scientists taught after arriving in Türkiye in the 1930s upon invitation of Atatürk. Before the official welcoming ceremony by Erdoğan, Steinmeier also met Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş. After he met with Erdoğan, he was scheduled to hold talks with the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Özgür Özel.