On Thursday 5 April, the European Commission defended itself saying it is not providing military equipment to Turkey. This was further to the revelation made by the European Investigative Collaborations consortium that EU money was being used to equip Turkey in armoured vehicles to prevent refugees from crossing its border with Syria.
“The EU does not supply any military or lethal equipment to Turkey”, explained the Commission spokesman, Carlos Martin Ruiz De Gordejuela. He went on to add that, within the context of pre-accession funding, the EU was helping Turkey – as it has helped other candidate countries to the EU – to “provide support to ensure that the border is properly managed – in the interest of the safety and security of refugees”.
“We are not providing Turkey with equipment to stop people in need of international protection from crossing the Turkish-Syrian border”, the spokesman stressed. In his view, EU assistance is “closely monitored”, from both the operational and financial points of view, and the EU has a system in place for the internal and external monitoring of the use of funds.
According to the Commission, 82 armoured but unarmed surveillance vehicles were financed, as part of the 2011 and 2012 programmes. Thirty-two such vehicles were deployed in provinces along the Syrian border. The contract was for €47.5 million, funded at 75% (€35.6 million) by the EU and 25% by Turkey, the Commission states.
The documents agreed between the Commission and Turkey clearly stipulate that “after delivery, the supplied equipment will be used exclusively for border surveillance”, while any other use or modification of the equipment requires written authorisation from the Commission. “The EU has received assurance from the Turkish authorities that vehicles supplied by the EU will be used as intended and will not be used in operations outside Turkey”, the Commission adds. (Original version in French by Camille Cerise-Gessant)