Berlin, Jan. 26 (TNS): The German government has put plans on hold to upgrade German-made tanks used by Turkey amid a public outcry over a Turkish offensive in northern Syria.
Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said the decision would be taken once a new coalition government had been formed.
Pictures have been circulating in the German media of Leopard tanks being used by Turkish forces in their campaign against Kurdish forces.
Turkish-led forces began their assault in Syria’s north-west on Saturday.
Air strikes pummelled the Afrin enclave before ground forces moved in against the Kurdish YPG militia.
Forty-eight Turkish-backed rebels and 42 YPG fighters have been killed in the fighting since Saturday, says the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group.
Yes, last week Berlin seemed ready to approve Turkey’s request for German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall to make its 1990s-era Leopard 2 tanks less vulnerable to explosives.
But then pictures emerged suggesting the tanks were not only being used in campaigns against the Islamic State (IS) group but also in Turkey’s “Operation Olive Branch” against the YPG.
Politicians not only from the German left but also Chancellor Angela Merkel’s own CDU party have condemned the upgrade. Norbert Röttgen, the conservative chair of the parliamentary foreign policy committee, told the BBC the Turkish attack was a violation of international law.
