The government gave the green light for arms companies to send sniper rifles and other military hardware to the country despite the shooting and gassing of protesters.
The government allowed British companies to sell sniper rifles, bullets, gas masks, and other military equipment to Turkey, just weeks after last summer's brutal crackdown on protestors in the country.
AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia
According to a Freedom of Information request made by BuzzFeed, the Department for Business Innovation and Skills granted multiple export licences to arms companies to export sniper rifles, bullets, gas masks, drone parts and other assorted military equipment to the country.
Ministers scrutinise the export of weapons, ammunition and other military technology to foreign countries and have to grant an explicit licence to companies looking to sell controlled goods.
A month before the exports were approved, 11 protesters were killed in clashes with Turkey's government. Over 8000 people were injured.
BuzzFeed
Turkey's protest movement started in late May over the demolition of an Istanbul park to build a shopping centre, but over the following months the demonstrations broadened into protests against perceived curbs on freedoms by the government.
Human rights organisation Amnesty International described the Turkish government's crackdown as a "brutal denial of the right to peaceful assembly".
In a report on the protests, Amnesty said the authorities "repeatedly showed total intolerance for any form of protest, however passive" and that they targeted lawyers, journalists and doctors who acted in support of protests with an "arbitrary and abusive use of force".
No comments:
Post a Comment