IOA Editor: Whether it was Israel’s attack on Gaza or the failure to deliver Israeli killer-drones to Turkey on schedule, note that the right to use force, by either country, is assumed to be absolute. Melman doesn’t even mention it, let alone question it.
By Yossi Melman, Haaretz – 15 Oct 2009
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1121246.html
The reason Turkey banned Israel from this week’s NATO air force exercises had nothing to do with January’s war in the Gaza Strip. Rather, it was because of delays in the delivery of unmanned aerial vehicles to the Turkish army, a source in the Turkish Air Force said.
The unnamed source was quoted yesterday in the Turkish newspaper Zaman.
The Turkish Air Force made similar allegations over a year ago, when it needed the UAVs for its invasion of the Kurdish region of northern Iraq.
The deal to sell Turkey 10 Heron UAVs, which was signed about five years ago by Israel Aerospace Industries, Elbit, the Turkish company Aselsan and the Turkish Air Force, is worth about $190 million. The deal included ancillary equipment, ground stations and training for the crews. The Turkish company was to be paid about $40 million, with the rest divided between Elbit and IAI.
Israeli security sources responded yesterday just as they did the last time such allegations were made: that the delays were due to supply problems by the Turkish contractor, but that Israel’s defense industries would not say so in order not to cast a pall over relations.
The UAV deal is only one of many Israel has concluded with the Turkish Army over the past decade. In total, they are worth about $2.5 billion, making Turkey one of Israel’s most important markets for military equipment.
But now, there is concern that if relations with Turkey continue to deteriorate, some of these contracts will not go through.
Sources in the Foreign Ministry said the Turkish Army wants to continue what has become a strategic alliance with Israel. However, they added, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who heads the ruling Islamic party, is pressing to break up the alliance.
The roots of the alliance go back to the 1950s, when Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization signed an agreement with the Mossad. Relations deepened when Turkey expressed willingness to participate in joint military exercises with Israel, and especially, starting in the 1990s, with the Israel Air Force.
Turkey was the country to which the greatest number of Israelis, 121,323 people, traveled in September, the Israel Airports Authority reported yesterday. The most popular Turkish destination was Antalya, to which 78,498 Israelis traveled – a decline of 2,155 people from last September.
Zohar Blumenkrantz contributed to this report.
