Germany drops sanctions on Turkey, relaxes travel advice

BERLIN, Germany – Germany has lifted economic sanctions on Turkey and relaxed its travel advice to the country, Berlin said Saturday, July 21, after Ankara ended its two-year state of emergency.

A 1.5 billion-euro ($1.7 billion) limit on export guarantees to Turkey would not be renewed this year, Germany’s economy ministry told Agence France-Presse, 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 5 other activists, including the head of Amnesty International in Turkey.

Opposition parties in Germany have accused the 1.5 billion-euro limit of being too timid, given that the value of export guarantees increased from 1.1 billion euros in 2016 to 1.46 billion euros 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, July 19.

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

On Friday, July 20, Turkey and the Netherlands ended months of enmity and agreed to restore diplomatic ties after two Turkish ministers were barred from a Rotterdam rally. – Rappler.com