The current red-green government is preventing the delivery of around three dozen Eurofighter fighter jets to Turkey. The Handelsblatt was informed of this by several sources familiar with the secret internal government deliberations.
German government circles cite the arrest of Turkish opposition leader Ekrem Imamoğlu as an important reason for the decision against the export license. The political rival of head of state Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is facing allegations of corruption. The Turkish opposition, on the other hand, speaks of a political conspiracy.
Sharp criticism of Erdoğan is coming from the Berlin government camp, with talk of an “attack on Turkish democracy”. It is therefore right to stop the arms deal, they say.
However, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), who is currently only in office in an executive capacity, justified exports to Turkey last October during a visit to Istanbul: “Turkey is a member of NATO, which is why we have repeatedly decided to make concrete deliveries.”
