Intel: Erdogan reportedly agrees to ship ventilator parts, PPE to United States

Apr 21, 2020

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is approving an export permit that will allow Turkey to sell personal protective equipment (PPE) and ventilator parts to the United States, the Middle East Eye reported today.

Erdogan reportedly told Donald Trump he would issue an export exemption for hazmat suits, gloves, face masks and spare parts needed for the United States to manufacture ventilators during a call between the two leaders on Sunday.

A shipment of medical equipment from Egypt is also set to arrive in the United States today.

Why it matters: Turkey has also agreed to export PPE to the United Kingdom, Spain and Italy. But that has not been without incident amid the global scramble to secure medical equipment for front-line health care workers fighting the pandemic. The Turkish government reportedly seized a PPE shipment that Madrid had paid millions for earlier this month, before ultimately allowing it to proceed to Spain.

At the same time, Turkey now has the largest number of recorded coronavirus cases in the Middle East (and seventh globally), with nearly 100,000 infections and more than 2,000 deaths. Additionally, The New York Times reported Monday that there were roughly 2,100 more deaths in Istanbul within the last month than the weekly averages over the past two years. This could indicate that the number of infections and deaths may be much higher than the official tally. Erdogan has sought to paint a rosier picture, arguing that Turkey has the coronavirus under control. However, he has tightly controlled information streams related to the coronavirus, reprimanding hospital workers and others for protesting the government response.