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  • U.S. Denies Turkey Leftover Warships

    EurasiaNet.org
    Jan 5 2015


    U.S. Denies Turkey Leftover Warships

    January 5, 2015 - 11:14am
    by Joshua Kucera


    The U.S. Congress has approved the handover of some leftover naval
    vessels to allies, pointedly excluding Turkey from the list of
    recipients.

    In late December, the U.S. finally approved the long-delayed handover
    of six naval frigates to Mexico and Taiwan. But the bill passed
    Congress only after Turkey (along with Pakistan and Thailand) were
    eliminated as potential recipients, for a variety of political
    reasons.

    In the 2012 version of the "Naval Transfer Act," Turkey was to receive
    two Oliver Hazard Perry class guided missile frigates, the USS
    Halyburton and the USS Thach, which are being decommissioned by the
    U.S. Navy.

    But the inclusion of Turkey proved controversial, as members of
    Congress pointed out Turkey's increasingly hostile stance toward
    Israel and its threats against natural gas exploration by American
    companies near Cyprus. "I believe we should hold off on sending
    powerful warships to Turkey and encourage the government in Ankara to
    take a less belligerent approach to their neighbors," said
    Representative Eliot Engel during that debate.

    That bill was ultimately defeated, and an alliance of Greek, Jewish,
    and Armenian lobbying groups took credit. But the defeat was only a
    symbolic one, says Can Devrim Yaylali, a Turkish naval blogger, who
    notes that the frigates in question were significantly more poorly
    equipped than the ships Turkey currently operates (including those of
    the same class) and could only have been cannibalized for spare parts.

    "The lack of these frigates will not have any effect on the Turkish
    Navy at all from a technical point of view," Yaylali tells The Bug
    Pit. "If the US lawmakers tried to give some kind of a signal to the
    Turkish government by not adding Turkey to the list of the nations
    that may get a frigate is beyond my understanding. But if they did;
    the message was not delivered as the medium is not the correct one."

    http://www.eurasianet.org/node/71516

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