Better Tanks In Exchange For A Political Prisoner? Germany's Uneasy Relationship With Turkey

Only a few months ago Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Germany of "Nazi practices". The relationship between the two countries hit rock bottom as Berlin banned a pro-Erdogan rally in Cologne and Ankara threatened with cancelling the refugee deal.

The story of Germany and Turkey is complicated. They are strategic allies, plus the Turkish community forms the biggest minority in the European country. But instead of smoothing the way, this proximity usually leads to bigger tensions. 

Time has passed from those remarks and things are better now, but they are still far even from being normal. Two German citizens who were imprisoned in Turkey under charges of having links to terror organisations were recently freed. However, Deniz Yücel, correspondent in Turkey for the newspaper Die Welt, remains in jail. Berlin's priority is to get him out, but, as the article argues, no one doubts Erdogan will demand something in exchange.

Mevlüt Cavusoglu and Sigmar Gabriel, Turkey's and Germany's foreign ministers, are leading the rapprochement. In their latest meeting, it became clear what is Ankara's most precious wish: the upgrade of German-produced tanks Leopard 2.

As such, it wasn't entirely inconvenient for Berlin that Cavusoglu brought up the desired Leopard 2 upgrades during his meeting with Gabriel. A short time later, the German foreign minister asked his staff to put the issue on the agenda of the next senior Foreign Ministry staff meeting along with instructions to reconsider the request from Ankara in a favorable light.

Can Germany really approve the operation if Yücel is freed? It seems unlikely.

Turkey is using German tanks in its controversial military campaign against Kurdish militias in northern Syria. Pressure on Berlin has mounted because of it, but German officials are yet to criticise the operation beyond voicing the classic "concern".

Furthermore, the imprisoned journalist brought up the issue himself after claiming he doesn't want his freedom to be part of "tank deals".