Defence Turkey: First of all I would like to thank you for your time for this interview. Turkey and Germany have had long-lasting relations and are both friendly and allied nations. How do you assess the recent intergovernmental relations between Turkey and Germany?

Germany and Turkey are friends and allies. For more than 50 years now, we have been standing together in NATO to protect the security of the Allied Nations. But if we look at today’s global and regional security situation, it is obvious that we are faced with different challenges to those in the days of the Cold War. We need to find answers to them, something which we have to achieve together for the benefit of both countries.