The youngest son of the former German chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl, married his long-time Turkish girlfriend under tight security in Istanbul on Saturday. Dr Kohl put aside his often-expressed dislike of Turkey and Germany's two million-strong Turkish population to hear his son Peter (35) say "Evet kabul ediyorum" ("I do" in Turkish) to his new wife, Ms Elif Soezen (31).
"It certainly is an ironic fate for Kohl that he now has a Turkish daughter-in-law," laughed one Turkish woman from Munich, waiting outside the San Antonia de Padua Catholic church in Istanbul.
Dr Kohl once famously remarked: "Turks treat the Kurds as we wouldn't have the right to treat animals." However, since the engagement was announced, he has toned down his comments significantly.
"My first impression of Elif was that she was a wonderful woman," he said, saying that he had no problem with his daughter-in-law being Muslim. "At the end of the day, my wife is Evangelical but my very Catholic parents thought very positively of her," he added.
Dr Kohl's wife, Hannelore, was unable to attend because she suffers from a rare allergy to sunlight. Shortly after two ceremonies, one Muslim and one Catholic, a visibly moved Dr Kohl called his wife at home in Germany on his mobile phone.
The couple met 11 years ago when they were both studying in the US.
