Excerpt:
Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Germany on Saturday, splitting the large Turkish community between passionate street protesters and conservative supporters flocking to what was widely seen as a campaign speech.
Erdogan is expected to run for the presidency in August, and Germany - with a Turkish community of three million, about half of them eligible voters - would be a strong constituency for the controversial leader.
Erdogan and his Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) have polarized Turks at home and abroad over what critics call his authoritarian style, a crackdown on civil liberties and corruption scandals under his rule.