Stance on 1915 incidents to inform Turkey’s missile system decision

A proposal evaluation process regarding Turkey's long-awaited, billion-dollar long-range air and missile defense system has been finalized, according to National Defense Minister İsmet Yılmaz. Reportedly, Turkey will wait until April 24, which is the anniversary of the 1915 incidents to select a winner for the missile defense system. Rumors in political circles in Ankara said that no decision will be made over the missile defense system winner before April 24 since Turkey wants to see France and the U.S.'s position on the 1915 incidents.

An agreement may be made with China if U.S. and French administrations take a "pro-Armenian" stance.

The 1915 incidents happened during World War I when a portion of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire took a stand with Russians and revolted. The uprising came about after a decision by the empire to forcibly relocate Armenians to eastern Anatolia. The Armenian diaspora and the state of Armenia have both described the incidents as "genocide" and have asked for compensation.

Responding to deputies' questions on the missile defense system, the national defense minister said that the system will be integrated with the national systems to be used in Turkey's own defense instead of integrating with NATO.

He also announced that the proposal evaluation process regarding the project is finalized.

The Turkish Long-Range Missile Defense System Project is one of the defense industry's biggest projects in which Chinese, American and Italian-French companies are seeking participation.

Last August, the Defense Industry Undersecretariat announced the project called T-LORAMIDS for the country's air and missile defense program. This has continued as of December 31 of last year by the ministry to negotiate further with a number of companies.

The Undersecretariat for the Defense Industry (SSM) is expected to make the final decision concerning the procurement of a multi-billion dollar long-range air and missile defense system tender, with European and Chinese firms in the running. Last September the SSM executive committee chose China's FD-2000 (HQ-9) long-range air and missile defense systems over Western competitors, including the Italian-French Eurosam's SAMP/T Aster 30 systems. The Chinese manufacturer of the HQ-9 missile system, the state-run China Precision Machinery Import-Export Corporation (CPMIEC), offered a $3.4 billion high technology transfer.

Within the scope of the tender the U.S. was competing with its Patriot missile system, China with its FD-2000 and the Italian-French company with its Samp-T system, and it was decided that negotiations will commence with CPMIEC from the People's Republic of China. Turkey's decision to start negotiations with the Chinese firm was not welcomed by NATO, the U.S. or Europe. Turkey was facing unprecedented pressure from NATO and the U.S. to back away from the deal with the state-run Chinese firm. NATO and the U.S. disapproved of the deal for two reasons. The first is that the Chinese company is on a U.S. government sanction list for its violations of the Iran, North Korea and Syria Non-Proliferation Act. The second reason, as stated by NATO allies, is that the Chinese system is incompatible with NATO systems.

Contributed by wires