The Turkish defense ministry on Saturday defended a multi-billion-dollar tank modernization contract awarded to Israel, countering calls at home that the deal be scrapped over Israel's aggressive offensive against the Palestinians.
"It is not the right approach to tie the signing of the contract with the current crisis in the Middle East. The contract is the product of long-lasting work," Colonel Tamer Buyukkantarcioglu, who is the ministry's secretary general, said in a written statement.
According to AFP, Buyukkantarcioglu also reacted to criticism in the Turkish press last week that the 668-million-dollar contract for the upgrade of 170 Turkish tanks was signed hastily and quietly on March 28 a day before Israeli forces launched their large-scale operation in the Palestinian territories.
The colonel argued that any delay in the signing of the contract due to the long-standing Middle East conflict would have dragged the project into uncertainty. "It is not possible for the Turkish armed forces to determine its needs and maintain its deterrent character if it develops strategies according to an unknown," Buyukkantarcioglu added.
Under the contract, which was awarded to the state-owned Israeli Military Industries (IMI), the modernization of the tanks was to be completed by mid-2007 with substantial technology transfer to Turkey, the colonel added.
"It is being ignored that the project is cost-effective...The technology that will be transferred will be used in future tank modernization projects and enable the domestic industry to participate in the manufacturing process," he said. (Albawaba.com)
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