SHARE
COPY LINK

TURKEY

Germany drops sanctions on Turkey, relaxes travel advice

Germany has lifted economic sanctions on Turkey and relaxed its travel advice to the country, Berlin said Saturday, after Ankara ended its two-year state of emergency.

Germany drops sanctions on Turkey, relaxes travel advice

A €1.5 billion ($1.7 billion) limit on export guarantees to Turkey would not be renewed this year, Germany's economy ministry told AFP, confirming an earlier report by the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

The measure was imposed in July 2017 as a way to pressure Ankara after the detention of a German human right campaigner and five other activists, including the head of Amnesty International in Turkey.

Opposition parties in Germany have accused the €1.5 billion limit of being too timid, given that the value of export guarantees increased from €1.1 billion in 2016 to €1.46 billion the following year.

Germany's foreign ministry also removed a warning on its website about its nationals facing a high risk of arrest when visiting Turkey.

Turkey's state of emergency, which was imposed after a failed 2016 coup and saw the biggest purge of officials in the country's modern history, came to an end on Thursday.

However the country's opposition has accused the government of moving to permanently formalise some of the measure's harshest aspects.

On Friday, Turkey and the Netherlands ended months of enmity and agreed to restore diplomatic ties after two Turkish ministers were barred from a Rotterdam rally.
 

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

SANCTIONS

Germany summons Belarus envoy over forced Ryanair landing

Germany said on Monday it had summoned the Belarusian ambassador over the forced landing of an airliner and detention of a critical journalist.

Germany summons Belarus envoy over forced Ryanair landing
A woman stands with a poster reading 'Where is Roman (Protasevich)?!' in the arrival area as passengers disembark from a Ryanair passenger plane from Athens, Greece, that was intercepted and diverted to Minsk on the same day by Belarus authorities. Photo: Petras Malukas/AFP

“The explanations of the Belarusian government for the forced landing of a Ryanair plane in Minsk are absurd and not credible,” Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in a statement.

“We need clarity on what really happened on board and on the ground,” he added, saying that ambassador Denis Sidorenko was expected at his ministry Monday evening.

Maas said Berlin also expected “clarity about the wellbeing” of the detained journalist, Roman Protasevich, and his girlfriend, saying both “must
be released immediately”.

He said a senior official at the ministry, Miguel Berger, would meet with Sidorenko, while EU leaders debate “consequences” at a summit in Brussels.

The Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius carrying Protasevich was diverted while in Belarusian airspace over a supposed bomb threat.

Accompanied by a Belarusian fighter jet on the orders of strongman Alexander Lukashenko, the plane landed in Minsk where Protasevich, a
26-year-old who had been living in Lithuania, was arrested along with his Russian girlfriend.

SHOW COMMENTS