Germany drops sanctions on Turkey

BERLIN: Germany has lifted economic sanctions on Turkey and relaxed its travel advice to the country, Berlin said Saturday, after Ankara ended its two-year state of emergency.

A 1.5 billion-euro ($1.7 billion) limit on export guarantees to Turkey would not be renewed this year, Germany´s economy ministry told AFP, confirming an earlier report by the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

The measure was imposed in July 2017 as a way to pressure Ankara after the detention of a German human right campaigner and five other activists, including the head of Amnesty International in Turkey.

Opposition parties in Germany have accused the 1.5 billion-euro limit of being too timid, given that the value of export guarantees increased from 1.1 billion euros in 2016 to 1.46 billion euros the following year.

Germany´s foreign ministry also removed a warning on its website about its nationals facing a high risk of arrest when visiting Turkey. Turkey´s state of emergency, which was imposed after a failed 2016 coup and saw the biggest purge of officials in the country´s modern history, came to an end on Thursday.