Erdoğan is a corrupt lying piece of trash who happens to rule a strategic piece of real estate. He skims a piece off of EVERY real estate deal in Turkey as well as other branches of commerce where he has managed to place relatives in positions of control. He uses Islam much as some of our so-called "Christians" use religion to curry favor with their constituencies: another element in his control scheme. He also controls the floodgates of refugees from points east to Europe. If he wants to turn on the faucet, he can. If he thinks he can press his advantage with Europe, he stems the flow. He doesn't care one bit about the misery of the refugees--their final destination of choice was never Turkey anyway. Hardly any of them will be staying of their own free will.

If Merkel tells Erdoğan to fuck off, he'll just loose another million refugees on Europe. If she gives in to his demands, the Europeans are screwed because they are at capacity as to what they can physically accommodate. Merkel is at a disadvantage because Erdoğan cares nothing for Europe, the refugees, or even his own people. He is now a multi-billionaire who cares about staying that way. Relations between Germany and Turkey aren't at a point where they could go much lower, anyway--on an official level anyway. I know lots of Turks who live in Germany, and they all get along fine with Germany and the Germans. Good people, all of them. They can't help what Erdoğan does any more than any of us could help what Dick Cheney did when he was running our country.