German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will visit Turkey on Saturday, according to German officials.

Scholz last visited Ankara in March 2022, a few months after taking office.

On this visit, Scholz is expected to land in Istanbul, where Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan hopes to get the green light from Germany for the purchase of Eurofighter fighter jets.

The agenda of the meeting between Scholz and Erdoğan reportedly includes the Middle East, Ukraine and the refugee issues.

No concrete reaction is expected to come out of the meeting beyond expressing ‘concern’ about human rights and democracy.

However, due to the rising right-wing tendency and anti-refugee sentiment across Europe, it is stated that there may be cooperation on the refugee issue.

Last month, Germany announced a deal to speed up the deportation of Turkish citizens whose asylum claims have been rejected, which Ankara denied.

Turkey is also hoping to make progress on the purchase of 40 Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets to compensate for delays in the delivery of US F-16 fighter jets whose sale was approved by Washington earlier this year.

The consortium set up to build the fighter jet consists of four members; the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain. One of these members can veto the deal. Germany's Israeli policy is allegedly the biggest obstacle to the sale of these fighter jets.

The main target of these fighter jets is the Kurds. There are concerns that the jets will be used not only in Northern Kurdistan but also in Southern Kurdistan and Northern-Eastern Syria. It is not yet clear whether these concerns will be overcome on other grounds.