Erdogan sends medical aid planes to South Africa; returns weapons to Libya

Mouaz Mohammad

In public, Turkey appears before the world that it is helping countries on various continents, by sending emergency medical assistance, in order to overcome the crisis of the coronavirus, but in reality the planes go with that aid, and they do not return empty, but are loaded with other things, especially weapons.

Means of possession of weapons and ammunition

For its part, the South African daily Maverick reported that six Turkish military cargo planes had traveled from Ankara to South Africa, loaded with a small amount of medical supplies aboard one of the aircraft, confirming that it was back loaded with military equipment purchased from the company that produced the ammunition Rheinmetall-Denil Monetion. (RDM).

RDM specializes in the manufacture of large and medium ammunition, and is a pioneer in the field of artillery, mortar and infantry systems.

The newspaper pointed out that Turkey, in order to implement its plan behind it, sent aid to combat the coronavirus epidemic to 57 countries, including Lesotho, “an isolated landlocked country located in southern Africa,” although it did not record any HIV infections.

In the same vein, Shannon Ibrahim, a political analyst in the South African newspaper The Star warned that the military equipment sold by his country to Ankara will often end in Syria and Libya, and its results will be devastating.

Ibrahim denounced South Africa’s approval to export military equipment to Ankara, since the NCACC stipulated that it does not sell military equipment and weapons to any country involved in armed conflict, confirming that the six aircraft have already returned to Ankara loaded with weapons.

It is reported that the National Commission for the Control of Conventional Arms in South Africa No. 41 of 2002 states that the NCACC must avoid transferring conventional weapons to governments that violate or systematically suppress human rights.

Doubts about the weapons

Adding further doubts, the Turkish ambassador to South Africa, Elif Chomoglu Olgen, also refused to comment on the nature of military exports to his country, describing it as a “simple trade law, and that it will be used for training purposes.”

It is possible that there are engines and missile warheads within the military equipment carried by Turkish planes, Halmud Romar Haitman said, adding in his interview to the South African newspaper Daily Maverick that Turkey has a missile design office in the African country, and that it is possible that the first part of the missiles that will be produced in the latter are manufactured.