German-Turkey collaboration over Leopard tanks continues
New investigation report published in the German magazine Stern reveals Germany still selling tank parts to Turkey.
When German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yücel was released from a Turkish prison after 367 days in custody, the German government assured that it had signed no dirty deal with Turkish President Erdogan. “There is no connection with arms exports to Turkey”, said Chancellor Angela Merkel and then foreign minister SIgmar Gabriel. Both ensured that “Turkey did not ask for anything in return”. Yet a new investigation report published in the German magazine Stern and signed by journalist Hans-Martin Tillack proves the opposite.
According to the feature, the modernization work of the Leopard 2 tanks, which Rheinmetall produced and sold to the Turkish state, was resumed in exchange for the release of German citizen journalist Deniz Yücel.
Rheinmetall, writes Tillack, has indirectly completed the modernization of Leopard 2 tanks. According to the German Government and to Rheinmetall official information not a single tank part has been sold to Turkey since 2014.
The findings of the investigation piece in the Stern and of ARD program Report Munchen are as follows:
Roketsan, the official Turkish state weapons manufacturer, presented the renewed Leopard 2s in August 2019. The resemblance of the renewed parts with those produced by IBD Deisenroth, headquartered in Bonn, drew attention. This firm defense system in 2004 was selling to Turkey with Germany’s approval. In 2019, Rheinmetall fully acquired the IBD Deisenroth, after having worked with it since 2007.
With the German Government’s approval in April 2018, Rheinmetall’s subsidiary has sold hundreds of tank tracks and wheels to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). These parts were given to FNSS Savunma Sistemleri A.Ş., which produces weapon systems for the Turkish army through the UAE.
German opposition parties demanded the full disclosure of Rheinmetall’s secret cooperation with the Turkish government, following the new. Die Linke deputy Sevim Dağdelen said: “If the weapons were renewed with German technology, this is direct aid to Erdogan and goes in violation of international law in Syria.” Green Party MP Tobias Lindner called on the government to “respond to claims that the new Leopards are actually updated with German factories parts.”
Source: ANF https://anfenglish.com/news/x-49488
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Be your own media !
The “minds” behind The Rojava Report website are a group of students from different backgrounds. ANF interviewed them on why they felt more information on Rojava and more in general on the Kurdish issue is needed and how they tried to answer to this need by creating their own site.
How did the idea of a blog on Rojava come about ?
All of us who were involved in setting up the Rojava Report understood that there was a huge lack of information regarding what was happening in the region. When the media in the US spoke about the Kurds in Syria – and this itself was rare – it was always along the lines of ethnic or sectarian violence, or to give another example of the “intractability” of the conflict. It was always in terms of an “Arab-Kurdish” conflict, as a corollary or side-show to the “Alawite/Christian-Sunni” conflict that has been the dominant narrative in the mainstream media. In general we felt that those advancing the revolution in Rojava needed a platform from which their voices could be heard, and on which they could stake out their own vision for the future of their country and the Middle East more generally, without the reductionist narratives there are so common among out the major news outlets here. It was meant to be a more unfiltered, more direct source of news about what was happening in Rojava.
How is the Kurdish issue in general perceived in the States ?
Of course that depends on who you talk to. However even among people who consider themselves informed about events in the Middle East, and are sympathetic to a degree to Kurdish demands for national rights, there is a huge dearth of understanding about the complexities of Kurdish politics in the region and Kurdish aspirations for a new Middle East. In regards to Rojava in particular there is still an assumption that Kurds are – or at least the PYD is (if they can make the distinction) – “close to the regime” or at the very least unwilling to do much about it. This unfortunately was the dominant narrative until the beginning of the revolution last summer – I mean if you read anything in the Washington Post or the New York Times through the Spring of 2012 that is what you find (and forget the television channels because they never had time for the Kurds). Just google “Kurds on the sidelines” and see how many articles come up! Then the narrative began to shift slightly after the revolution and it became something along the lines of “Kurds are dividing the opposition.” I mean can you imagine? It was as if they could not make anyone happy, or at least not in a way that respected the principles of their movement. But that is just the point because that is all lost, and even now the YPG is treated as simply one more sectarian militia, while the entire content of their revolution and their politically ideology is buried under a simplistic discourse of “Kurdish nationalism” and “sectarian strife.”
