Meloni’s defense double standard: no to Israel and yes to Erdogan

In January 2024, the Arab media outlet Al Arabiya, exposed that Italy and Turkey were aiming to boost the value of trade between their countries to $32.7 billion (€30 billion) by 2030 from around €25 billion currently. Additionally, the defense deals between the two countries could include Italy’s Leonardo SpA, which works on aerospace and security globally. It seems like Al Arabiya was well informed since, on April 29, Italian PM Giorgia Meloni and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will meet in Rome to sign a series of business agreements, including one in the defense sector.

As reported by the Italian newspaper Il Giornale, the bilateral meeting will be enriched by an Italy-Turkey Business Dialogue Forum that will be held at the Parco dei Principi Hotel, with over 500 companies from both countries, which will focus on strategic sectors such as circular economy, innovation, automotive, sustainable energy, infrastructure and indeed aviation and defense. In fact, in early 2025, Leonardo SpA and the Turkish drone manufacturing company Baykar, which acquired Piaggio Aerospace, signed a business cooperation agreement. The Forum will also be attended by Deputy Foreign Minister Edmondo Cirielli, Minister of Business and Made in Italy Adolfo Urso, along with their Turkish counterparts. Meloni and Erdogan will be meeting in the afternoon.

Il Giornale also explained that, at the end of the high-profile session, the signing of over ten trade agreements between economic operators of the two countries will be celebrated. Finally, at the end of the works, a panel dedicated to the financial support tools for the economic partnership between Italy and Turkey will be held. Today, Italy is Turkey’s first trade partner in the Mediterranean area and the second in Europe.

Why is it interesting? Because in October 2024, during a Senate meeting, Meloni boasted that Italy had been the most restrictive of its European partners in blocking arms supplies to Israel, as reported back then by the Italian newspaper Sole24Ore:

“After the start of operations in Gaza, the government immediately suspended all new export licenses” and “all agreements signed after October 7 have not been applied. The licenses authorized before are all analyzed on a case-by-case basis by the competent authority at the Farnesina…I want to point out that the Italian position of the complete block on all new licenses is much more restrictive than that applied by our partners, France, Germany, the United Kingdom: these partners continue to operate also for the new licenses on a case-by-case basis, we have blocked everything.”

The measure was confirmed earlier that year, in January 2024, by the Italian Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani to the Italian press agency ANSA: “Since October 7, we have decided not to send any more arms to Israel, so there is no need to discuss this point”.

Italy’s weapons supply to Israel is indeed limited to a small percentage which makes the whole delivery block irrelevant to Israel’s security, about 5%. However, the conveyed message puts Italy in a difficult situation. While Italy immediately ceased weapons shipments to Israel starting October 7th, the Meloni-led government is willing to implement defense deals with Erdogan, who defined Hamas terrorists as “liberators”, and who is openly supporting the Palestinian terrorist organization that perpetrated the biggest pogrom of Jews since the Holocaust.

Furthermore, isn’t PM Meloni concerned about the fact that the defense agreement between the two countries could benefit Turkey’s offensive against the Kurds, with massive casualties among civilians? Do such concerns only apply when the “target” is Israel? It is not possible to claim a firm stance against Islamist terrorism while at the same time relating with those who support it and applying double standards. It’s a matter of credibility.