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Israel cancels military contract with Turkey

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  • Israel cancels military contract with Turkey

    Jewish Chronicle
    Dec 29 2011

    Israel cancels military contract with Turkey

    By Jennifer Lipman, December 29, 2011

    The increasingly fragile relationship between Israel and Turkey showed
    no sign of improvement this week after the Israeli government
    cancelled a military contract worth more than £90 million.

    The government had been due to supply Turkey with an aerial
    intelligence system in a deal agreed two years ago. But, according to
    an official speaking anonymously, concerns about Turkey's shifting
    allegiances in the Middle East prompted Israel to pull out.

    The Ministry of Defence said that all decisions about contracts were
    taken "in accordance with the specific diplomatic and security
    considerations".

    However, the ministry stressed that the decision was taken with regard
    to the specific technology and was nothing to do with the overall
    relationship between the two countries.

    Concern over the deterioration of the once-strong relationship,
    severely damaged by the fall-out from the deaths of Turkish activists
    on a flotilla to Gaza last year, was said to be the reason Prime
    Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to block a Knesset debate on
    official recognition of the Armenian genocide.

    Turkey has long refused to recognise the Armenians' claim that some
    1.5 million people were massacred in 1915 and 1916, saying instead
    that 500,000 people died fighting against the Ottoman Empire during
    the First World War.

    Earlier this month, France angered Turkey by passing a law making it
    illegal to deny that what happened in 1915 was genocide.

    Turkey has already downgraded diplomatic relations to the lowest level
    and expelled the Israeli ambassador; if Israel was to follow France's
    example, this would further strain ties

    http://www.thejc.com/news/world-news/61150/israel-cancels-military-contract-turkey




    From: A. Papazian
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