The Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) has called on the UK government to block the proposed sale of 40 Eurofighter Typhoon jets to Turkey, citing the country’s ongoing military campaign in Kurdish-controlled areas of northern Syria and alleged human rights violations.
CAAT argued that proceeding with the Eurofighter sale would make the UK complicit in Turkey’s growing list of human rights violations.
“It is unconscionable that this Eurofighter deal is still being discussed,” said Emily Apple, a spokesperson for CAAT. “Not only is Turkey an authoritarian, human rights-abusing regime domestically, but it is committing war crimes in Rojava.”
The deal, reportedly valued at approximately £5 billion, has drawn strong opposition from human rights organizations, which argue that supplying Turkey with advanced fighter jets could further escalate the human rights violations in the region.
Between 2019 and 2024 Turkey carried out more than 100 airstrikes in northern Syria on oil fields, gas facilities and power stations, cutting off electricity to over 1 million people.
Kurdish-led forces that control large swaths of northern and northeastern Syria said 12 people were killed on February 27 in airstrikes it blamed on Turkey.
In December 2024 two Kurdish journalists, Nazım Daştan and Cihan Bilgin, were killed in a Turkish drone strike near the Tishrin Dam, east of Aleppo. The journalists were covering clashes between Ankara-backed forces and US-supported Kurdish fighters when they were hit.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report in November holding Turkey responsible for human rights abuses and violations of land and property rights in swaths of northern Syria it controls along with its proxies.
In addition, Turkey was also repeatedly accused of disrupting the water supply to Kurdish-majority areas. In late 2022 HRW said Turkey’s actions exacerbated an acute water crisis and contributed to the spread of a deadly cholera outbreak.
In March 2024 the UN’s Commission of Inquiry on Syria released a statement that said Turkey’s airstrikes on civilian targets in northeast Syria could amount to war crimes.
Turkey has also been carrying out airstrikes in Iraq. Four people were killed on January 26 in an airstrike blamed on Turkey in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region
Since 2016 Turkey has carried out successive ground operations to expel the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) from Syria’s north, with its proxies now controlling two large border strips.
Ankara views the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which dominates the SDF, as an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
While parts of the international community have joined Turkey in designating the PKK as a terrorist organization, Ankara’s views on the YPG have generally not been shared by its Western partners.
The UK has historically maintained strong defense ties with Turkey, approving arms export licenses worth £1.6 billion since the failed 2016 coup attempt against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The proposed Eurofighter deal — which involves cooperation from Germany, Italy and Spain — is the latest in a series of arms transactions between NATO allies.
