And yet Germany gives weapons to war zones – The example of Turkey and Egypt

The military scene is well known. More than 100,000 Russian troops have gathered on the Ukrainian border, and Ukraine is asking Germany to help by sending weapons and ammunition. But the new government under Social Democrat Olaf Soltz refuses, citing a government deal with its two other partners that says Germany does not send weapons to countries embroiled in military crises or violating fundamental and human rights. Defense Secretary Christina Lambrecht promised 5,000 military helmets. “It is not enough” was the response from Kiev. “We need defensive weapons.” But again, the response from Chancellor and Foreign Minister Berbock was no. Exceptions can only be made in justified individual cases, which can be publicly substantiated, according to the SPD government agreement with the Greens and the Liberals.

In fact, before leaving for Washington, Chancellor Soltz, in an interview with the first public channel of the German television ARD, reiterated the well-known German position that “for years the government has been drawing a clear line on the issue, ie in crisis areas we do not export and do not send lethal weapons in Ukraine “. But how true is this? Deutsche Welle verified this position and concluded that it did not correspond to reality.

“Of course we have sent weapons in the past, but always occasionally,” Christian Meling, a defense and security expert at the German Foreign Policy Association, told DW. “Which means that in Germany the principle of case-by-case control applies, that is, we look at each case separately.” It is obviously not true that Germany does not supply arms to countries involved in war, there are many examples that confirm that German arms exports have taken place with the consent of the German government, with its special support the government itself. ”

The example of Egypt

Egypt is the 5th largest buyer of German weapons since 2019 according to the TIP (Trend Indicator Value) of SIPRI. In the period from January 1, 2021 to December 14, 2021 alone, arms exports worth 4.34 billion euros were issued to the country, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Protection. Most of them were approved by the previous Merkel government despite the fact that Egypt is involved in armed conflicts in Yemen and Libya and has been criticized for massive human rights violations. Does this mean that Egypt is using German weapons in the wars in Yemen and Libya? Peter Wetzeman can not rule it out. “German arms supplies to Egypt can be divided into two groups. The first includes air defense systems. As far as I can tell, these have nothing to do with the war in Yemen. The other group, the warships, could be problematic. “The frigates could certainly play a role in the conflict in Yemen, where the naval blockade was an important part of it,” the SIPRI expert fears. “On the other hand, such large arms supplies contribute to the legitimacy and strengthening of the Egyptian military government.”

But there are other countries that have intervened militarily in the war in Yemen since 2015 and have also received German weapons, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar. According to the German government’s 2020 Export Report, ammunition for cannons, rifles, shotguns and ammunition for ammunition included in the List of Weapons of War, an annex to the Arms Control Act, has been approved for Qatar. In addition, at the end of 2020, Berlin approved the delivery of 15 Gepard anti-aircraft tanks to Qatar. In 2019, research by the #GermanArms research project showed that German weapons play an important role in the war in Yemen. “The government has been forced to admit that granting approvals for certain arms supplies was a mistake,” Wetzemann said, “Saudi Arabia, with which there was a large deal for the delivery of patrol boats.” Following the assassination of Saudi opposition journalist Jamal Kasogi at the country’s consulate general in Istanbul, all export permits to Riyadh were frozen and revoked. Since then, arms exports to Saudi Arabia have been banned or extended several times.

Turkey, a difficult partner

Another highly controversial buyer of German arms and a NATO ally is Turkey. The country has “changed significantly” in recent decades, notes Christian Meling, a defense expert. “One can see afterwards that the arms supplies were wrong. A government has every right to make mistakes in its estimates, precisely because they are estimates.” For years, Germany has supplied Turkey with hundreds of millions of euros worth of warships, although the country has been criticized for human rights abuses and is one of the UN intervenors in the Libyan war, supplying one of the warring parties. In addition, the Turkish government has for decades taken military action against the Kurdish PKK, both at home and in neighboring countries. The situation became particularly explosive in 2018 after the Turkish military offensive against the Kurdish YPG militia in northern Syria. That is, German anti-tank missiles are now hitting German tanks? some media were wondering at the time.

The reason for this question was German support for the Kurdish Peshmerga movement against Islamic State fighters in northern Iraq since the summer of 2014. Not only equipment such as helmets, protective vests and radios were provided, but a whole package of ammunition, including rifles, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades, anti-tank weapons and grenades, valued at more than 90m euros, according to the German government. Of course, the Kurdish regional government promised to use the weapons exclusively against the “Islamic State” organization, but there was no control. In fact, the German government itself could not rule out that German weapons ended up on the black market, as in northern Iraq, according to Even after their mission, ie monitoring the position of the delivered weapons, they do not exclude the risk that these weapons will be used in conflicts, as at least the experts addressed by DW point out. Both Melling and Wetzemann criticize the fact that while on the one hand the German government has a restrictive policy on arms exports, on the other it does not have a clear compass in the security policy for their surrender licenses.

The conclusion; Germany has not consistently adhered to the principle of non-proliferation in crisis areas. The German government has repeatedly approved arms supplies to parties involved in a dispute or in crisis areas.

Tetiana Klug

Edited by: Irini Anastassopoulou

Source: Deutsche Welle