Germany expresses interest in discussing supplying fighter jets to Türkiye
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his desire on Saturday to explore the possibility of supplying Eurofighter fighter jets to Türkiye, noting that there are talks between the United Kingdom and Türkiye on this issue, which is still in its early stages.
“This is something that will continue to develop, but its Britain that is pushing it forward,” Scholz added during a press conference in Istanbul with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Türkiye announced last year that it was in talks with Britain and Spain to buy Eurofighter Typhoon jets despite Germany’s objections to the idea.
Ankara has since complained that progress has been made on the issue due to Berlin’s opposition.
For his part, Erdogan stressed his interest in enhancing cooperation in the field of armament, and told reporters, “We would like to leave behind some of the difficulties we witnessed in previous periods regarding the supply of defense industry products and develop our cooperation”.
He added that Türkiye hopes to obtain about 40 Eurofighter aircraft, which Germany is involved in producing, so the supply of these fighters requires obtaining the approval of the German government.
The Eurofighter Typhoon is manufactured by a consortium of Germany, Britain, Italy and Spain, represented by Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo.
There is controversy in Germany over arms exports to Türkiye due to Germany’s criticism of the human rights situation in Türkiye, as well as Ankara’s approach at the international level, which is opposed to the German approach, especially regarding Türkiye’s strong criticism of Israel for its genocide in the Gaza Strip, while Germany has consistently defended Israel.
The German government used to approve large arms exports to Türkiye, but these exports have been greatly reduced in recent years to amounts in the low double digits or single digits of millions of Euros.
According to the German Ministry of Economy’s response to a request for information from Bundestag member for the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance party, Sevim Dağdelen, since the beginning of this year until October 13, 69 permits were issued to export weapons to Türkiye worth 103 million Euros.
This is the first time that the value of German arms exports to Türkiye has reached the hundreds of millions since 2011.
