Germany’s Scholz to Block Erdogan Plan to Buy Fighter Jets

  • NATO allies have series of concerns about Turkey’s allegiances
  • Erdogan this week said Israel has become a terrorist state

A Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet.

Photographer: Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg
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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is unlikely to agree to a fresh request by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to buy Eurofighter Typhoon jets, as tensions simmer over a number of issues including Turkey’s condemnation of Israel.

Erdogan will probably ask Scholz at a meeting in Berlin on Friday to lift a block on the sale of the fighter planes he needs to refresh an aging airforce, according to Turkish officials familiar with the matter. Germany produces the Eurofighter in a consortium with three other countries.