ANKARA, 27 April 2005 — Turkey said yesterday it had signed a deal worth about $1.1 billion with its NATO ally the United States to modernize 117 F-16 warplanes. The main contractor will be Bethesda, Maryland-based defense giant Lockheed Martin Corp.
Turkish Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul told reporters the modernization work would begin in July and be completed by 2012. Turkish firms would also participate in the project to upgrade the fighters, which it plans to use until 2040. “We agreed that in the scope of the project some $400 million of the total deal would be awarded to local industry,” Gonul said. “After the modernization is completed, our Turkish armed forces’ F-16s will attain the level of the most modern planes in the US armed forces, equipped with the most recent systems.”
The US ambassador to Ankara, Eric Edelman, hailed the accord as “a great example” of cooperation between the two allies, which would bring benefits to both countries. Relations between Ankara and Washington have been strained since Turkey’s parliament voted in 2003 to bar US forces from attacking Iraq from Turkish soil.
Ankara said last week it was renewing for another year a deal allowing the United States to use its southern Incirlik air base to supply US and allied forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. But US officials have said they are waiting for details of the decision, notably whether Turkey has agreed to Washington’s request for wider terms including blanket clearance for all cargo flights.
Meanwhile, the Turkish Parliament approved yesterday the resignation of a deputy of the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP), who faces charges of corruption, thereby removing his parliamentary immunity from prosecution. The resignation of Cemal Kaya was approved in a vote by a show of hands. Kaya announced his decision to step down last week after an Ankara prosecutor issued an indictment accusing him, along with 17 other defendants, of corruption in energy tenders.
Turkish deputies have parliamentary immunity from prosecution and cannot stand trial unless parliament removes their immunity or approves their resignations.
Kaya is accused of trying to arrange for a number of state tenders to be awarded to a company registered under his wife’s name. The affair has prompted critics to question the government’s pledges to stamp out widespread corruption and nepotism plaguing Turkey’s political establishment.
Kaya’s departure leaves the AKP with 356 seats in the 550-member parliament, still a comfortable majority. Some 13 deputies have resigned in recent months from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party, accusing the AKP leadership of nepotism, corruption and lack of respect for dissenting views in its ranks.
In another development, the European Union urged Turkey yesterday to press ahead with implementing key reforms needed to meet EU standards, but reassured it that plans to start membership talks in October remained on track.
The EU’s presidency said notably it was confident the vast Muslim country would sign an accord extending a customs union with the EU to include 10 states which joined the bloc last year, including the divided island of Cyprus.
“We reiterated our commitment to the political criteria which must be fulfilled,” said Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn after the talks with his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul.
EU leaders gave Turkey a green light last December to begin talks on joining the now 25-member bloc, while setting a number of conditions and warning that the whole process could take at least a decade. A key condition was the extension of a EU-Turkey customs accord to cover the 10 EU newcomers states. EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn voiced hope that Turkey would extend the customs accord well before October, noting that the EU is working on the documents required for Ankara to sign.
“Everything is well underway and I’m sure that we will achieve this signature of the protocol in good time before the opening of the negotiations,” he said.
Gul said Turkey was committed to the reform process. “We are aware of how important implementation (of already-adopted legislative reforms) is,” he told reporters.
In another development, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan yesterday named former Turkish Finance Minister Kemal Dervis to become head of the influential UN Development Program (UNDP). Dervis, credited with helping steer Turkey through its worst economic crisis of modern times in 2001, is the first-ever UNDP chief to come from a recipient rather than a donor nation, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
The 56-year-old, a former World Bank official, replaces Mark Malloch Brown, the Briton who was named as Annan’s new chief of staff earlier this year to help the United Nations deal with a string of embarrassing scandals.
