All the fights between Erdogan and Scholz over Eurofighter and Israel
What Erdogan and Scholz said
Turkish President Erdogan's anti-Israeli outbursts have a price, which was presented to him yesterday in Berlin where Chancellor Scholz refused to approve the sale of twenty Eurofighter Typhoons to Ankara as the epilogue of a verbal clash between the two leaders over Israeli law to defend themselves from Hamas.
The meeting and the dossiers.
Rags flew yesterday in Berlin during the meeting between Chancellor Scholz and Turkish President Erdogan, who were radically divided also, but not only, on the issue of Israel's war against Hamas.
As Deutsche Welle recalls, Erdogan had flown to Germany to deal with various dossiers including that of migration, Sweden's entry into NATO and the supply to Ankara of a certain number of Eurofighter fighters which the Turkish air force desperately needs as it has to renewing its obsolete F4 fleet and being barred from US-made jets due to Erdogan's strongly desired acquisition of the Russian S-400 anti-aircraft defense system.
The divisions over the war.
But it was the war that dominated the discussions and public statements of the two leaders who, regarding Israel's right to defend itself from the threat of Hamas, espouse antithetical positions.
“It is no secret that we have, in part, very different views on the current conflict,” Scholz told Erdogan, in words reported by the Associated Press , during the press conference that preceded the closed-door talks; but precisely for this reason, "and particularly in difficult moments, we need to speak to each other directly", added the chancellor.
“Hamas' attack implies that Israel must protect itself and be able to defend itself,” explained the Social Democratic leader to an interlocutor who not only denies this right but branded the Jewish state as “terrorist” and “fascist”.
Scholz naturally specified that it is important "to make every effort to keep the number of civilian victims as low as possible", specifying that "the suffering of the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza depresses us too".
The Sultan's Fury.
But it was not enough to appease the sultan's anger. Israel, were his words reported by the Monitor , “is bombing places of worship? He's doing it. Is he bombing churches? It does. And I'm very worried about this. As Christians, aren't you worried about bombs targeting churches? Why don't you raise your voice against this?".
The Turkish president has gone so far as to insinuate that German support for Israel is linked in an unspeakable way to Germany's guilt in the Shoah. “I speak freely because we owe Israel nothing… Those who are in debt do not speak freely. We did not go through the holocaust and therefore we are not in this situation."
No Eurofighter.
And it is probably Erdogan's animosity that motivated Scholz's refusal to the Turkish request, anticipated two days ago by Bloomberg , to acquire at least 20 Eurofighter Typhoons with the option to purchase a further twenty.
As reported by the AP, it was the Turkish Defense Minister Guler who told the Defense Committee of the Ankara Parliament two days ago that Spain and Great Britain were in favor of the operation and would work to convince Berlin, whose approval is necessary for every move affecting the consortium that produces the jets.
At yesterday's press conference, Reuters reports, Scholz refused to answer a question about his possible consent to the sale of the planes, which according to Bloomberg had already been rejected by the chancellor as a blatant sign of protest against the anti-Semitism of the Turkish leader, for its reckless military actions against the Syrian Kurds and for the delays with which Ankara managed and held hostage the delicate dossier of Sweden's entry into NATO.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/tutti-gli-scazzi-tra-erdogan-e-scholz-su-eurofighter-e-israele/ on Sat, 18 Nov 2023 08:18:20 +0000.