Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News

French firms may lose $11 bln Turkey defence deals
by Elif Unal, Reuters
Posted: Tuesday, February 13, 2001 01:57 am CST

ANKARA, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Turkey's Defence Minister said on Friday that Ankara was considering excluding French firms from defence tenders worth a total of $11 billion in the latest sign of its anger at Paris's recognition of Armenian genocide claims.

Tension erupted between the two NATO-ally countries last month when French parliament voted to recognise Armenian accusations that their some 1.5 million kinsman were massacred in 1915 during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

Turkey rejects the claims, saying far fewer were killed and both sides suffered in partisan fighting during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

"There are 13 (defence) projects that are worth $11 billion," Sabahattin Cakmakoglu told Reuters in an interview.

"We will evaluate the French firms involved in those projects separately, taking into consideration the Turkish people's reaction and shock because of the latest decision France has taken," he said.

"If there is equality between a French firm and another firm in performance or other technical details we will of course not choose France," he said.

Turkey has already named several companies it plans to exclude and cancelled a $259 million satellite contract with Alcatel. It was not clear whether the Alcatel contract was one of the 13 projects mentioned by the minister.

However Cakmakoglu said existing contracts worth up to $5 billion would not be affected by the protest.

The minister said one of the main projects likely to be affected is a tender for hundreds of tanks over more than 10 years. French state-owned arms maker GIAT, maker of Leclerc tanks, was one of the five bidders for the tender worth some $7.1 billion.

The minister said the evaluation of the projects involving French companies could be concluded in less than a month.

Turkey said on Thursday it had banned two French companies from all defence tenders for one year, Alcatel Space Industries

and Matra Marconi Space, now part of Astrium, a space and communication business owned by European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co NV and BAE Systems Plc.

A similar bill recognising the claims of genocide against the Armenians was passed by the European parliament last year and a non-binding motion has been passed by Italy.

One of the coalition partners in Turkey's government has said it will propose a bill providing swift sanctions against countries whose parliaments accuse Turks of genocide against Armenians. The new law could arm the cabinet with power to invoke swift counter measures against states that formally condemn Turkey.

Turkey has excluded French firms from state grain tenders and stopped a road-building tender involving French companies.

The U.S. congress dropped a resolution on the same issue late last year after former President Bill Clinton warned it would harm U.S. security interests in the Middle East.

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