During a parliament speech about Germany's arms deliveries to Ukraine on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was asked about the invasion attack launched by the Turkish army in southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq) on April 17, 2022.

Martin Sichert from the ultra-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) asked Baerbock, a member of the Green Party: “When Turkey launched a military operation against Syria in 2019, your party, which was an opposition party at that time, insisted on imposing an arms embargo on Turkey, and the Federal Government then took a similar decision. Are you going to impose a new embargo that will halt arms deliveries to Turkey due to the military offensive it has launched in Iraq in the last few days?”

BAERBOCK DEFENDS TURKISH THESES

In response, Foreign Minister Baerbock referred to the "legitimate defence" thesis frequently articulated by Turkish state officials. "We must look at Turkey’s motives for these military operations. Turkey has the right to defend itself, and of course, the civilian population should not be targeted. We do not have any concrete evidence that civilians are being harmed during this military operation.”

As a response, Sichert posed another question to Baerbock: “When you have concrete evidence, will you take action and decide to impose an embargo on Turkey?" Baerbock refused to give a clear answer to the question and said; “We should underline that Turkey is a NATO member. We supported the decision of the previous government regarding arms sales to Turkey. In fact, arms sales to Turkey have been restricted more than ever," she said.

Contrary to what Baerbock said about Turkey’s right to self-defence, the Turkish state has started all its invasion attacks against South Kurdistan and North and East Syria in recent years, including the one on April 17, 2022, without any attack by the Kurdish forces.