LONDON (Dispatches) – The United Kingdom has completely lifted all of the restrictions on the export of military products to Turkey that were brought in following Ankara’s 2019 offensive on northeast Syria, Turkey’s chief defense industry officer Ismail Demir says.
The UK government in December announced that it has lifted a suspension of arms exports to Turkey but added that all existing and new export and trade license applications for Turkey would be assessed on a case-by-case basis against “the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria”.
A senior Turkish official said that despite the December announcement, there were military export licenses for some products that were awaiting approval by the British government, and in practice the restrictions were ongoing.
“However, as of today all of the restrictions are now lifted and no defense article license request is awaiting confirmation,” the official told Middle East Eye.
Turkey has deployed forces in Syria in violation of the Arab country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Ankara-backed militants were deployed to northeastern Syria in October 2019 after Turkish military forces launched a long-threatened cross-border invasion in a declared attempt to push fighters of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) away from border areas.
Ankara views the U.S.-backed YPG as a terrorist organization tied to the homegrown Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been seeking an autonomous Kurdish region in Turkey since 1984.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and other senior officials have said Damascus will respond through all legitimate means available to the ongoing ground offensive by Turkish forces in the northern part of the Arab country.
Meanwhile, Syria has condemned Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s call for the establishment of a safe zone in the occupied northern part of the Arab country.
“The cheap statements made by the Turkish head of state reveal the aggressive manipulations plotted by the Ankara regime against Syria, as well as the unity of its territory and people,” the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said in a statement carried by the official news agency SANA.
The statement went on to say that the “despicable bargains” made and carried out by Ankara exhibit the lack of the minimum level of political and moral understanding to deal with the crisis in Syria.