As part of Merkel’s visit the leaders inaugurated a new Turkish-German university in the historic city.

Erdogan’s tone on the Libyan issue and conflict, however, was serious in his warning that “If calm is not established as soon as possible, the atmosphere of chaos in Libya will affect all the Mediterranean basin.”

He also brought up the ongoing nine-year civil war in Syria, saying that leaders and powers on the world stage did not act quickly enough in dealing with it and that the same should not be the case with Libya. “We hope the international community will not make the mistakes it made in Syria,” Erdogan said.

Merkel’s arrival in Istanbul to meet Erdogan comes almost a week after she hosted the Berlin Conference, which brought together world leaders and representatives from a variety of countries to discuss the conflict in Libya.

This comes at a time of increasing tensions between the EU and Turkey, with the two holding disagreements on a myriad of issues including Libya, Syria, and the Eastern Mediterranean dispute. Erdogan’s recent signing of deals with the GNA and its military assistance to the struggling UN-backed government has raised controversy from some European nations who either support and sympathize with Haftar or are uncomfortable with Turkey’s military involvement in the conflict.

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