Merkel invites Erdogan to Berlin after elections

By Cuneyt Karadag

SOLINGEN, Germany (AA) - German chancellor Angela Merkel has invited Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Berlin after Turkey’s June 24 elections, Turkish foreign minister said on Tuesday.

Speaking to media during his visit at Germany's northern city of Dusseldorf for the commemoration ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the racist arson attack in Germany’s Solingen city, Mevlut Cavusoglu said he will deliver the invitation to the Turkish president.

Cavusoglu said the invitation by Merkel came during their meeting at the commemoration ceremony.

During his visit, Cavusoglu also met his German counterpart Heiko Maas. The two foreign ministers also laid flowers at the Solingen attack monument.

A house of Turkish immigrant family was set ablaze in 1993 -- killing five members of a Turkish family -- by four young far-right extremists aged between 16 and 23, amid growing resentment against foreigners in the country, after the unification of East and West Germany in 1990.

Dozens of xenophobic attacks between 1990 and 1996 claimed the lives of at least 18 immigrants and asylum seekers, and injured dozens more.