Turkey’s deputy foreign minister reveals UK has lifted ban on arms sales to Turkey

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The UK has resumed exporting arms to its NATO ally Turkey, despite condemning Turkish incursions as “reckless” and “counterproductive” two years ago.

Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Faruk Kaymakcı told a meeting of the parliamentary foreign relations committee on February 17 that the UK had lifted a ban on arms sales to Turkey following a unilateral Turkish offensive in northern Syria in 2019, information kept secret from the public.

Explaining that Turkey faced obstacles in purchasing weapons, Kaymakcı said this was also the case before the 2019 military operation. This was instrumental in Turkey’s strengthening of its defense industry. .

Kaymakcı said they were trying to overcome barriers to arms sales and cited the removal of the UK arms sales ban as an example.

According to the British daily Express, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered the resumption of standard licensing in December.

The UK government has said licenses will only be issued if the applicant can “demonstrate conclusively that the goods will not be used in northeast Syria”

In 2019, EU states also agreed to halt arms sales to Turkey following its invasion of Syria.

European states issued licenses for 2.8 billion euros in arms sales to Turkey in 2017, according to EU records.

It is very unclear how British trade officials could determine whether the weapons were used in Syria or not.

According to Kaymakcı, significant progress has been made in negotiations with the Netherlands and Germany. However, the Dutch government announced last October that the processing of license applications for the export of military goods or dual-use goods for military use to Turkey would resume on the condition that they are not used in the north of Syria.

Kaymakcı may have meant that they were trying to get the bans lifted without any restrictions.

The declassified UK has submitted a freedom of information request to the Foreign Office and the government has refused to provide the information it holds. They said it would “damage relations” between the UK and Turkey.

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