PROFILE "HONOUR KILLING" OF A TURKISH WOMAN IN BERLIN LAST YEAR LED MANY TO QUESTION WHETHER GERMANY ITSELF WAS CAPABLE OF INTEGRATING ITS 2.6 MILLION-STRONG TURKISH COMMUNITY. WHEN THE WOMAN'S BROTHER WAS SENTENCED LAST MONTH TO NINE YEARS IN PRISON FOR HER KILLING, THE JUDGE SAID THE FAMILY HAD BEEN LIVING IN BERLIN'S KREUZBERG DISTRICT FOR YEARS BUT "WASN'T REALLY LIVING IN GERMANY." COMMON INTERESTS STILL, BOTH MERKEL AND ERDOGAN HAVE GOOD REASONS TO KEEP RELATIONS ON A GOOD FOOTING. ERDOGAN, ON HIS FIRST VISIT TO BERLIN SINCE MERKEL TOOK OFFICE IN NOVEMBER, CALLED GERMANY THE MOST IMPORTANT INVESTOR IN TURKEY AND EXPRESSED HOPE THAT MERKEL WOULD NOT STAND IN THE WAY OF THE COUNTRY'S EU AMBITIONS. "EU RELATIONS ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT SUBJECT ON OUR AGENDA AND GERMANY HAS ALWAYS BEEN BY OUR SIDE IN THIS PROCESS. I BELIEVE THAT THIS SUPPORT WILL CONTINUE," HE SAID. GERMAN EXPORTS TO TURKEY REACHED A RECORD 12.8 BILLION EUROS ($16.34 BILLION) LAST YEAR, WHILE IMPORTS ROSE TO A NEW PEAK OF 8.3 BILLION EUROS. GERMANY IS TURKEY'S BIGGEST TRADING PARTNER. PEOPLE OF TURKISH ORIGIN ARE ALSO AN INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT POLITICAL FORCE IN GERMANY, WITH ROUGHLY ONE MILLION EXPECTED TO BE ELIGIBLE TO VOTE IN THE NEXT FEDERAL ELECTION. "TURKS ARE ACTIVE IN THE GERMAN ECONOMY AND GERMAN CAPITAL IS ALSO FLOWING INTO TURKEY. THE INTERDEPENDENCE IS INCREASING IN THE ECONOMIC FIELD AND THIS WILL HAVE POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS IN THE LONG RUN," SAID HUSEYIN BAGCI, AN EXPERT IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AT ANKARA'S MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY. "ERDOGAN WANTS A NEW BEGINNING WITH MERKEL. HE TELLS HER HE TOO IS CONSERVATIVE AND THEY NEED TO ACT TOGETHER," HE ADDED.
