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The Siemens group has signed a declaration of commitment to a boycott of Israel through its Turkish subsidiary for a deal with the Turkish state railway, a report said on Friday.
According to German Südwestrundfunk (SWR), a Saudi Arabian financier had requested the Turkish side to declare a boycott.
The Turkish state railway had applied for a loan from the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) to finance eight Siemens trains. The bank has stipulated that all parties involved respect the “boycott regulations of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation, the League of Arab States, and the African Union”.
Siemens had to submit a “sworn declaration”, which would oblige it not to do any business with Israel in order to set economic pressure on the Jewish State.
This kind of agreement would violate German law. And according to internal documents, Siemens strategists warned that not making an explanation would have “most likely” resulted in the disqualification of the group in the tender.
SWR also reported that Siemens solved this issue by having its Turkish subsidiary Siemens AS sign the critical statement. The group gained the contract, and the order was expanded from initially ten to twelve trains.
When asked about the process, the group only said that it adheres to “all national and international compliance standards”. Arnold Wallraff, President of the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control until 2017, told the broadcaster that Siemens had in fact acted in a legally compliant manner.
The President of the German-Israeli Society, Volker Beck, slammed Siemens and said: “I think that’s a moral oath of disclosure for a German company." Bec also intends to file a complaint to have Siemens’ actions legally reviewed.