"My friend is in Germany."

Translation: Benim arkadaşım Almanya'da.

[Gok-Turk]

Can the word "arkadaş(im)" be understood as "the one who looks after (my) back"?

[AlexinNotTurkey]

The root of it is something like "back fellow/sharer."

"arka" refers to the area behind you (and doesn't refer to your biological back) and "-daş" is an old Turkic root that refers to a person doing some sort of reciprocal action with you. It is sort of like "The only who is behind you and you are also behind them" if that makes sense

[AGreatUserName]

That kind of makes me think of two people, back to back, defending themselves and each other from a cruel, scary world ... and I guess that's what friendship is.

[Gok-Turk]

OK, thanks.

[JoaoDSouza]

Why do you teach arkadaş instead of dost?

[Selcen_Ozturk]

because it is used much more commonly. It is really unusual to say "benim dostum almanya'da". Dost is especially used in phrases like "gerçek dost"