_ From: Rick Rozoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Frankfurter Rundschau August 7, 2001 Turkey is the leading recipient of German weapons and arms-productions facilities. According to the government's report, in 1999 Turkey received about 855 billion dollars worth of exported German weapons. The United States, Italy, Israel and the United Arab Emirates came in second through fifth. According to 1999's statistics, the German armaments industry exported 2.65 billion dollars worth of weapons. In that year Berlin approved 9,373 export applications while turning down 85. GERMANY APPROVES WEAPONS DELIVERY TO TURKEY Fuse sale to Ankara no sign of arms-policy change, says Berlin By Thomas Kroeter Berlin - Germany's government plans to continue following its current arms-export policy with Turkey, a Berlin Economics Ministry representative told the Frankfurter Rundschau. German Greens party defence expert Angelika Beer also denied that the government's decision to authorise delivery of weapons fuses to Turkey indicates a general relaxing of the current policy. The Bundessicherheitsrat or Federal Security Council (BSR) authorised the Nuremberg-based arms-maker Diehl to export weapons fuses to Turkey, a fellow NATO member, Berlin government circles unofficially confirmed Sunday. The government never comments officially on decisions of the secret organisation. The request to authorise the fuse deliveries was made during the administration of former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Last spring, when the Social Democratic-Greens government that followed Kohl into office in 1998, had yet to issue a decision, Diehl took the case to court. Berlin law-experts reportedly came to the conclusion that blocking the delivery would be legally impossible. Once that decision had been reached, the BSR - which includes the Chancellor's Office, the Foreign, Defence, Economics and Development Ministries - approved it. After getting approval for the deliveries from Berlin, according to a report in the Frankurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Diehl dropped its lawsuit - but the company still lost the contract. The delay had taken so long that a competitor got the job. But according to the Sunday newspaper, German arms-makers are taking the decision as an "important signal." The decision, word in weapons-making circles in Germany has it, indicates a general relaxing of standards in favour of the weapons industry regarding export policies. Greens defence-policy expert Beer calls that view total rubbish that, at best, represents nothing but wishful thinking on the part of arms-makers. The German government, Beer said, will continue its previous, restrictive policies, policies that require the human-rights records of countries wanting to buy weapons to be taken into account when making the the decision. That in fact is the very reason why requests to export weapons to Turkey need to be so carefully considered, said Beer. Turkey is the leading recipient of German weapons and arms-productions facilities. According to the government's report, in 1999 Turkey received about 855 billion dollars worth of exported German weapons. The United States, Italy, Israel and the United Arab Emirates came in second through fifth. According to 1999's statistics, the German armaments industry exported 2.65 billion dollars worth of weapons. In that year, Berlin approved 9,373 export applications while turning down 85. Whether the long-ongoing, most-disputed deal with Ankara ever becomes reality, is still an open question. Turkey's army is still evaluating a variety of battle tanks, including the German Leopard II. Plans to export a sample tank trigerred a hot dispute within the German coalition governent recently. _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
