Germany reviews Turkey's arms requests as crisis deepens

Germany said on Friday it was reviewing applications for arms projects from Turkey, accusing its NATO ally of ramping up covert operations as an attempt by a Turkish minister to calm a deepening bilateral crisis fell flat.

While one minister in Berlin compared Ankara’s behaviour over the detention of six rights activists to the authoritarian former communist East Germany, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told Germany to “pull itself together”.

Bilateral tensions were already high after bitter recriminations during a referendum in April on extending Erdogan’s powers and a pullout of German troops from a Turkish air base that began this month.

They rose further after Turkey detained the activists, including a German national, in custody two weeks ago.

Turkey’s economy minister sought to calm matters but Erdogan, renewing earlier criticism, accused Berlin of trying to scare German companies away from investing in Turkey.

Germany, home to three million people with Turkish roots, said it would review Turkish applications for arms projects. “We’re checking all applications,” an Economy Ministry spokeswoman said.

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That means the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (Bafa) probably cannot issue new export approvals, but projects already agreed will not be affected initially.

In 2016, the German government exported armaments worth 83.9 million euros to Turkey. In the first four months of 2017, business worth 22 million euros was approved, for navy deliveries and joint projects with other NATO partners.

Germany has warned Germans travelling to Turkey that they do so at their own risk, and Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble was quoted on Friday as comparing Turkey with the former communist East German state – the German Democratic Republic (GDR).

“Turkey now makes arbitrary arrests and no longer sticks to minimum consular standards. That reminds me of how it was in the GDR,” he told the mass-circulation Bild newspaper.

Schaeuble said those who travelled to the former Communist East before it collapsed in 1990 were aware that “if something happens to you, no one can help you”.

German officials say they have not had full consular access to arrested German activist Peter Steudtner, who was accused of terrorism – an allegation Berlin has dismissed as absurd. Another German citizen was arrested on charges of links to terrorism earlier this year.

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