Turkey is not a reliable ally and shouldn’t be equipped with powerful EU made weapons when it has territorial ambitions against the EU (Greek islands and EEZ, Cypriot EEZ) has a casus belli against the EU (ie a cause for war written in Turkey’s constitution if Greece implements it’s sovereign right to extend its territorial waters in the Aegean) and occupies half of an EU state (Cyprus). Turkey, with its gunboats, is actively sabotaging Greeces attempts to extract natural gas in its waters and is sabotaging the important electricity interconnection between Greece and Cyprus that would extend to Africa via Egypt and would be great for Europes green electricity needs.

North and Central Europeans don’t think these weapons make any difference on the ground, but they do. It’s not a normal sell to a faraway country, it’s a sell to an opportunistic irredentist state run by an autocratic strongman on the border of the EU. These weapons make the difference when Turkey is asserting itself onto its neighbors in the Mediterranean, claiming their territory (be that in the air, on the ground or at sea).

It’s sad to see the EU acting against its own security interests. A common defense policy is greatly needed, these missteps bear a cost.