Allegations of arms transfers to Syria recently came up after the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu last month referred to the court testimony of a truck driver detained after being caught with a truck loaded with almost 1,000 warheads, heading for Syria in November. Kilicdaroglu quoted the driver as saying the gendarmerie did not check the trailer of the truck before he unloaded the cargo near the Syria-Turkey border.
Turkish Interior Minister Muammer Guler and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu rebuffed the opposition claims and allegations of arms transfers to Syria, adding that the driver's testimony to the court is being investigated.
Yilmaz responding to the recent claims in the Turkish media, addressed the Turkish Parliament during the 2014 budget talks, and said that all weapon exports from Turkey require the permission of the Turkish Ministry of National Defense.
"There was no war weapon exports to Syria, and no weapons entered Syria through Turkey in 2013. The only items we exported to Syria included hunting rifles and blank firing guns. We have no exports other than that," asserted Yilmaz, in his statement by the Turkish Ministry of Customs and Trade.
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17/12/13
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Turkey admits export of rifles to Syria ‘for sports’...
ReplyDeleteNo weapons intended for war have been exported to Syria in 2013, Defense Minister İsmet Yılmaz has said, while acknowledging that weapons “without military uses” for use in sports activities have been exported to Syria, indirectly acknowledging a recent report by daily Hürriyet.
Yılmaz, however, declined to elaborate on the addressee of the imported weaponry.
Permission for exportation of all weapons from Turkey are issued by the Defense Ministry, Yılmaz said on the morning of Dec. 17, while delivering a speech at Parliament’s General Assembly during ongoing budget debates for the fiscal year 2014. According to a report recently published by the state-run Anadolu Agency, Yılmaz initially denied that his ministry had given permission for the exportation of any weapons to Syria.
“No war weapons have been exported to Syria. In 2013, no gun has gone from Turkey to Syria,” Yılmaz was quoted as saying in the report.
Anadolu Agency noted that Yılmaz was quoting a statement by the Customs and Trade Ministry. “What has been exported is ungrooved hunting rifles and blank firing guns. Other than that, any export by us is out of question,” he added.
47 tons of weaponry
Turkey has sent over 47 tons of weaponry to the Syrian rebels since June, according to documents filed by the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) and also filed under the United Nations trade records, despite repeated denials from government ranks, daily Hürriyet reported over the weekend.
In September alone, 29 tons of military equipment was sent to opposition fighters, according to the same documentation.................http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkey-admits-export-of-rifles-to-syria-for-sports.aspx?pageID=238&nID=59712&NewsCatID=338
17/12/13