Friday, June 29, 2007

Turkey aspires to milit technology

"Turkey aspires to milit technology By Selcan Hacaoglu

ANKARA, Turkey — For the first time ever, there are no U.S. bidders for a major Turkish arms contract, signaling serious snags in one of the world’s closest military-commercial partnerships.

For more than 50 years, the United States and U.S. firms have been the main arms suppliers to Turkey, a lynchpin of NATO’s southern flank during the Cold War. Turkey, in a rough neighborhood that includes Iran, Iraq, Syria as well as traditional rival Greece, has also been eager to snatch up weapons to supply its large army, which is also dealing with a domestic Kurdish insurgency. At the heart of the problems today are both diplomatic and technical issues rooted in Turkey’s ambition to gain control over its military technology."

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