( dpa ) - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan left Ankara on Thursday for a four-day official visit to Germany where he will visit the scene of a deadly fire in the town of Ludwigshafen that left nine Turkish immigrants dead.
"We have been in contact with the German authorities since the start. It needs to be found whether there was an attack, arson or sabotage," Erdogan said at Ankara's Esenboga Airport.
"It is necessary that this investigation be concluded and that our community (in Germany) be soothed with satisfactory information."
Erdogan's visit was to have focused on cooperation with Germany against terrorism, but the events in Ludwigshafen have shifted the priority to the plight of Turkish immigrants.
In addition to seeking a full investigation into the blaze, Erdogan is set to lobby his German counterpart Angela Merkel to drop new immigration laws that require Turkish immigrants to undergo German language tests.
Turkish officials say the new laws are discriminatory as they exempt many nationalities but not Turks.
German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble in Ankara earlier in the week said that Germany was determined to continue with the implementation of the new laws.
In talks with Merkel, Erdogan is also expected to push for greater action by the German authorities on activities by groups linked with the separatist Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK).
According to a Turkish official report handed to Schaeuble on Monday, the PKK receives substantial financial support from sources in Germany.
The report said that there are 37 PKK front organizations in Germany that operate with relative ease.
