British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on October 27 found himself visiting Turkey to seal a multi-billion-dollar fighter jet deal on the same day that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s chief political rival, Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, was formally arrested on charges indirectly related to alleged British intelligence-linked espionage.

The controversy was an awkward distraction as Starmer in Ankara finalised the sale of up to 40 Eurofighter Typhoon jets to Turkey.

As related by bne IntelliNews on October 24, espionage charges pressed against Imamoglu could open the way for the Turkish state to take control of the Istanbul city government, which is controlled by main opposition party CHP.

The stepped-up prosecution of the popular Imamoglu – jailed since March and already facing various charges including a corruption indictment, widely seen as trumped-up in an effort to prevent him pursuing the very real prospect of dethroning Erdogan in a presidential election – will remind critics that the UK is only too willing to sell advanced military hardware to an increasingly authoritarian state.

Germany too is in the frame. Its Chancellor Friedrich Merz in July announced the end of Eurofighter consortium member Germany’s opposition to Eurofighter sales to Turkey.

British officials expect the deal to be worth around £5.4bn ($7.2bn) to the UK and create 20,000 British jobs.

“Turkish democracy is the casualty of Europe’s rediscovery of Turkey’s strategic value,” independent journalist Barcin Yinanc wrote in a recent column, as noted by the Financial Times in its report of the jet deal.

The spy charges against Imamoglu focus on claimed links between his campaign team and a businessman arrested in July on suspicion of associations with British, American and Israeli intelligence services.

At a preliminary hearing on October 26, Imamoglu, who has denied all the espionage and other charges, said it would be “more realistic to be charged with burning down Rome”. 

The CHP has described the latest charges faced by Imamoglu as “farcical”.

In a press release, BAE Systems chief executive Charles WoodBurn said: “Typhoon is an export success story and demonstrates how investment in defence can fuel significant economic growth and returns across the UK. Today’s announcement extends Typhoon production and preserves crucial sovereign skills which underpin the UK’s defence and security.”

The Eurofighter Typhoon is a 4.5-generation fighter jet.

Turkey remains engaged in lobbying to persuade the US to sell it 5^th-generation F-35 stealth fighter aircraft – as things stand it is unable to acquire F-35s because sanctions imposed six years ago on Ankara by Washington in response to its purchase of missile systems from the Kremlin remain in place. This is a problem for the Erdogan administration, particularly given that Israel already boasts regional air superiority with the use of F-35s and regional arch-rival Greece has successfully placed orders with the US for F-35 deliveries.