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The German government approved 1.2 million euros in military equipment sales to Turkey in 2023, the lowest in its history, Deutsche Welle’s Turkish service (DW Türkçe) reported on Friday.
According to the report the German Federal Government green-lighted 17 applications for military equipment sales to Turkey totaling 1,220,000 euros during the period that ended Dec. 3.
The government provided the information in response to a parliamentary question posed by Sevim Dağdelen, an MP from the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, officially known as the For Reason and Justice Party.
According to economy ministry data, the export permits granted for Turkey in 2023 were limited to cooperation projects related to NATO, in addition to equipment for scanning, hazardous material cleanup and communications as well as hunting weapons.
For comparison, between 2017 and 2021, during former chancellor Angela Merkel’s last term in office, Turkey imported 4.5 billion euros worth of arms and military equipment from Germany.
Following a July 15, 2016 abortive putsch in Turkey and the Turkish government’s operation in northeastern Syria in October 2019, Germany restricted arms exports to Turkey, deciding not to sell weapons that could be used in the Syrian war.
A recent dispute between Turkey and Germany over the Eurofighter fighter jets that Turkey wants to buy has brought Germany’s restrictions on its arms export policy to Turkey back to the agenda.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Nov. 19 told journalists on the plane returning from his visit to Germany that German Chancellor Olaf Schulz didn’t make any comments on whether they would provide the Eurofighters or not.
“We have already given our answer. If they sell us these planes, they do. If not, do we lack doors to knock on? No, we have many,” Erdoğan added.
During his visit, Erdoğan had signaled that Germany should change its restrictive stance on arms exports in general, in addition to the Eurofighters.
According to the response to Dağdelen’s parliamentary question, in 2023 the German government authorized arms exports worth 13.26 million euros to Saudi Arabia, of which 7.41 million euros were for combat weapons, 40.31 million euros to Egypt, 15.06 million euros to Qatar and 78.24 million euros to the United Arab Emirates.