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22 Jan 18. Berlin Weighs Tank Deal with Turkey to Free Journalist. Officially, Germany insists it wants no part of any kind of trade-off with Turkey in its effort to free imprisoned journalist Deniz Yücel. Behind the scenes, though, a tank deal could be taking shape. The guest from Ankara was to be made to feel completely at home. Prior to welcoming his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Cavusoglu to his home in the town of Goslar, located just north of the Harz Mountains, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel even took the step of buying a caydanlik, a traditional Turkish tea pot.
The fact that Cavusoglu referred to his host afterwards as a friend (“Dostum Sigmar”), however, wasn’t just a product of Gabriel pouring the tea himself. Rather, the primary purpose of the meeting between the two ministers was to discuss the steps that each side could take to end the deep crisis that has befallen German-Turkish relations.
Recently, Ankara has begun sending early signals of rapprochement toward Berlin, and several innocent German citizens, imprisoned for no good reason, have been released, including human rights activist Peter Steudtner and journalist Mesale Tolu. But the most difficult case has yet to be solved: Deniz Yücel, the Turkey correspondent for the German daily newspaper Die Welt, has now been in jail for almost 11 months, without a single charge having been filed against him.
In Goslar, where Gabriel and Cavusoglu first met in private before inviting advisers in to join them, the German foreign minister once again demanded the release of the journalist, who holds both German and Turkish citizenship. Cavusoglu replied that he, too, is unhappy about the fact that there still haven’t been any developments in the case.
But the guest from Ankara also brought along a wish list. At the very top was a controversial arms deal.
The Turkish government would like to upgrade its fleet of Leopard 2 battle tanks by providing them with better armor and a modern defensive system to protect them from smaller missiles and explosive devices. The improvements are aimed at eliminating one of the tanks’ weaknesses — a shortcoming that resulted in the Turkish army’s having lost several tanks and troops in the battle against Islamic State (IS).
‘On Hold’
For months, Turkey has been in talks with the German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall about the enhancements. But without an export license granted by the German government, Rheinmetall isn’t permitted to move ahead with the contract. And thus far, Berlin has refused to approve the sizeable deal. That, after all, would contradict the more stringent approach to Turkey that Gabriel announced on July 20 last year. “The more sizeable requests that Turkey has made have been put on hold,” the foreign minister repeated in September.Activists in Berlin protest a possible weapons deal for Turkey. The sign reads: “No tanks for Erdogan.”
In addition, Berlin has repeatedly said that it wasn’t open to barter deals. Ankara, though, has repeatedly noted during the negotiations that it expects to receive something in return for releasing journalist Yücel. During former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s secret visit to Turkey shortly after the German elections last fall, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan proposed that Germany extradite several Turkish generals suspected of having participated in the failed coup attempt in July 2016. Essentially, it amounted to an indirect admission from Erdogan that he viewed imprisoned German citizens as political hostages.
The German government insists that it has consistently told Turkey that it would not be party to any “dirty deals.” In theory. But in practice, the Germans know full well that Yücel’s release would come at a price. It may not be a direct tit-for-tat, such as handing over a briefcase fu