Arms trade

Turkey's operation in Syria exposed Europe's double standards

The EU's swift response to Turkey's operation in Syria against the YPG exposed the 28-member body's hypocrisy when it comes to protecting "the stability and the security" of the Middle East. 

The same European countries that recently imposed sanctions on Turkey for attacking the YPG see no problem in continuing their arms sales to a country like Saudi Arabia, which is responsible for a war in Yemen that already killed tens of thousands of civilians. 

The EU has an arms export policy - the 2008 Common Position on arms export controls - which sets out the criteria by which member states must judge potential export licenses, including respect for human rights and international humanitarian law in the destination country. When the UN's experts concluded that Saudi Arabia is violating international human rights and humanitarian law in Yemen, therefore, all EU member states should have stopped their arms exports to the kingdom. 

Such an export ban, however, never materialised. 

According to the EU's own reports, EU member states issued at least 607 licences worth over 15.8 billion euros ($17.6bn) to Saudi Arabia in 2016 - a year after the start of Yemen's devastating conflict.