The Social Democrat (SPD) parliamentary leader Peter Struck said Friday that Germany will not be selling tanks to Turkey, apparently ending a dispute that had rocked the German ruling coalition.
Struck said in an interview with the Die Welt newspaper that is to be published Saturday that the centre-left government of the SPD and the ecologist Greens will "not give licenses for building these tanks."
He said SPD Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping and the SPD group in parliament were "fully united" on not making the sale.
The proposed deal has caused a rift between the SPD and the Greens, who strongly oppose the sale, arguing that Ankara's human rights record, particularly in its campaign against separatist Kurdish rebels, should prevent German companies from arming Turkey.
Five bidders, including German arms maker Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, are competing in a massive Turkish defence ministry tender for the joint production of 1,000 combat tanks in a deal estimated to be worth as much as $ seven billion (€7.22 billion).
The German foreign ministry confirmed that Krauss-Maffei Wegmann had requested a preliminary export license from Berlin to be able to deliver 1,000 Leopard-II tanks to Turkey if awarded the contract. After heated debates the Greens agreed last year to allow Krauss-Maffei to send a Leopard-II prototype for demonstration in Turkey, but said that an ultimate sale could go ahead only if Turkey made a substantial progress on human rights.
Schroeder said in April that Turkey had failed to make the improvements in human rights that would clear the way for the sale. German President Johannes Rau said he did not think his country would go ahead with tank deliveries. – (AFP)
© Agence France Presse 2000
© 2000 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
