German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived on a two-day visit to Turkey where she will discuss Ankara's bid to join the European Union and the conflict in Syria.
The Anatolia news agency said Merkel had touched down in the southern city of Gaziantep from where she was scheduled to travel to Kahramanmaras to visit German troops who have been stationed there since January.
The 300 German soldiers are operating Patriot missiles as part of a NATO mission to protect the Turkish border from any spillover of the conflict in neighbouring Syria.
The Netherlands and the United States have also deployed two ground-to-air missile batteries each in Turkey.
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