TURKEY tr-diplomacy

Rift with Israel may hinder Turkey's anti-terror fight

ANKARA – Hürriyet Daily News | 9/4/2011 12:00:00 AM | Ümit Enginsoy

Turkey’s decision to sever military ties with Israel risks creating liabilities in Ankara’s fight against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, defense analysts have said.

Turkey’s decision to sever military ties with Israel risks creating liabilities in Ankara’s fight against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, defense analysts have said.

In order to avoid this outcome, they added, the move toward Israel must be coordinated with special post-sale arrangements on the status of already delivered weapons systems and other equipment that is still being delivered.

The most critical pieces of equipment being used in Turkey’s anti-terror operations include unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, mine-resistant and ambush-protected, or MRAP, armored vehicles and – to a lesser degree – tanks.

Turkey last year completed receipt of 10 Heron UAVs worth $183 million from Israel Aerospace Industries, or IAI, and Elbit Systems. Turkish military electronics company Aselsan was also a subcontractor in the deal. UAVs are remotely piloted aircraft used mostly for military surveillance, though some U.S. UAVS are also armed. One Turkish Heron crashed in Mardin province earlier this year, but nine are presently operational.

The İzmir-based company BMC is producing 4x4 “Kirpi” (porcupine) MRAP armored vehicles for the anti-PKK fight. In March, it delivered the first of 468 Kirpis for the Turkish Army. Turkish procurement officials give high ratings to the vehicles’ performance in the country’s southeast, the main venue for anti-terrorism efforts. Israel Military Industries, or IMI, early last year completed the upgrade and delivery of the last of the U.S.-made 170 M60A1 Patton tanks for Turkey. The process cost about $600 million.

[HH] Post-sale agreements

In defense-industry deals between countries, there are usually clauses that define maintenance, repair and other post-sale services to be provided by the seller. But it is not clear what will happen to such deals following Turkey’s cutting of military ties with Israel.

“This is still very new and the situation is fluid. We need to clarify a number of things,” one senior procurement official told the Hürriyet Daily News over the weekend.

Murad Bayar, head of the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries, Turkey’s procurement agency, told the Turkish press in August that the country’s defense industry was increasingly developing and that Ankara no longer needed to do business with Israel – apparently a reference to new defense industry business.

“Will the Herons, which have been valuable in the fight against terrorism, continue to operate, or will new Kirpis be produced? This need clarification,” said one defense analyst.

“I believe the two countries will find a solution. I think the Israeli government and companies will have no objections against continued limited cooperation,” a second analyst said. But Turkey and Israel are not expected to sign any new deals in the foreseeable future.

Terrorist attacks by the PKK have spiked recently, killing scores of Turkish soldiers this summer.

[HH] Past ties close

With the major boost to their political ties in the mid-1990s, Turkey and Israel also became very close partners in defense. In the 1990s, Israel signed lucrative agreements to modernize Turkey’s older F-4 Phantom and F-5 aircraft and sold Popeye-I and Popeye-II ground-to-air missiles.

Turkey allowed the Israeli Air Force to conduct training exercises over the central Anatolian province of Konya. The Turkish, Israeli and U.S. militaries conducted numerous joint exercises, most notably the Anatolian Eagle drills held by their respective air forces.

But after Turkish-Israeli relations became strained in early 2009 over Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, Turkey expelled Israel from the Anatolian Eagle drill and the two countries’ defense cooperation deteriorated.

Eventually, Turkey moved last week to cut all military ties with Israel, also announcing it would expel the Israeli ambassador in Ankara, after part of a U.N. report on last year’s deadly Israeli attack on a Turkish-led flotilla bound for Gaza was leaked to the press. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu also announced that diplomatic relations would be reduced to the level of second secretaries, and that all higher-level diplomats from both nations would return home this week. He also said Turkey did not recognize Israel’s blockade of Gaza.