Turkey prevents German frigate from inspecting

Dhe Turkish government stopped the inspection of a container freighter by a German frigate in the eastern Mediterranean on Sunday. That emerges from two briefings of the defense policy supervisors of the German Bundestag, which the FAZ has received. First the “Spiegel” reported about it. The incident was confirmed to the FAZ on Monday by the headquarters of the EU naval mission “Irini”. The freighter was suspected of transporting weapons to Libya.

According to the Bundeswehr operations command, the frigate “Hamburg” started shortly after 3:30 on Sunday afternoon to board the “Roseline A” in the Mediterranean about 200 kilometers north of the Libyan city of Benghazi. As usual, the boarding order came from the commander of the “Irini” mission, on whose behalf the German Navy ship was en route. There were suspicions that the ship was undermining the arms embargo against Libya. It drove under the Turkish flag.

The Turkish crew of the freighter initially acted cooperatively, and the German soldiers began checking around shortly after 7 p.m. But then Turkey apparently protested. The German soldiers then ceased their controls, but remained on board until sunrise on Monday morning for security reasons. The freighter then continued its journey unhindered, towards the Libyan port city of Misrata.

A spokeswoman for the “Irini” headquarters told the FAZ that nothing suspicious had been found during the inspection. The spokeswoman did not want to say whether the inspection was completed; they are waiting for further information from the German frigate. It can be assumed that the soldiers were not able to control the entire cargo in the short time.

Regarding the boarding process, the headquarters in Rome announced that the operations management had endeavored in good faith to obtain the approval of the flag state for boarding. “After we did not receive an answer from the flag state, the team of the German frigate ‘Hamburg’ boarded the freighter in international waters.” This happened 160 miles from Benghazi. The captain and the crew behaved “cooperatively”. After Turkey refused to allow the inspection, the inspection was canceled. It was the fifth boarding as part of the mission.

According to the rules of engagement of the naval mission, which is supposed to control the UN arms embargo against Libya, emergency teams are only allowed to inspect if the captain of the ship concerned authorizes this or if he does not respond to contact. If the captain expressly refuses the inspection, teams are not allowed on board or have to stop their mission. The spokesman for the EU foreign affairs representative Josep Borrell said on Monday that the Turkish government had been contacted about the incident and that such cases were reported to the United Nations.

Sanctions against the Turkish shipping company

The last time there was a serious incident occurred on June 10th because Turkey prevented the boarding of a freighter flying the Tanzanian flag. The ship was accompanied by two Turkish frigates. They suppressed controls by a Greek and an Italian frigate. When a French frigate, which was on the move as part of the NATO operation “Sea Guardian”, approached the convoy, the Turks aimed their fire control radar at the warship – an unheard of occurrence among NATO partners. It then turned on; France protested the Alliance and requested an investigation.

At the end of September, the European Union imposed sanctions on the Turkish shipping company “Avrasya Shipping”, on whose behalf the suspected freighter was en route. The reason stated: “The Cirkin is particularly associated with the shipment of military equipment to Libya in May and June 2020.”

Since the summer, Germany has provided the flagship of the EU naval mission with the frigate “Hamburg”. In September, the German Navy examined a Turkish ship on its way to Libya for the first time, thus preventing the UN arms embargo from breaking. At that time, the boarding team discovered kerosene on the tanker “Red Diamond 7”, as it is commonly used to refuel combat aircraft. According to FAZ information, a team inspected another oil tanker, the “Anwaar Afriqya” under the Libyan flag, last weekend.