German President Joachim Gauck arrived in Turkey late yesterday as he kicked off a four-day visit to Turkey, Hurriyet Daily News reported.
The president will meet today with German soldiers deployed to operate Patriot missile defense systems in the southern province of Kahramanmarash, where 300 German soldiers have been deployed along with two units of Patriot defense systems and a tent city built for Syrian refugees.
Germany, the Netherlands and the United States supplied ground-to-air missile batteries, which Turkey requested after a series of cross-border shellings from Syria in 2012, including an attack that killed five civilians.
Gauck will also hold meetings with President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on April 28.