On 6 December, the Russian President Vladimir Putin made an official visit to Turkey. The visit procedures included a meeting of the Russian Federation's Minister of Defence Sergey Ivanov with official representatives of the Turkish ministry of Defence.
Both the presidents and the ministers of defence discussed the prospects of military and technical cooperation of the countries.
Vladimir Putin expressed his hope that Russian companies will be given in Turkey the same conditions as are given to other companies present in the market. Speaking on the matter, Mr. Putin mentioned the negative experience of Russia's participation in the tender for supply of helicopters.
Up to the present, despite a huge potential, the relations of the two countries in this field has been almost equal to zero.
As a matter of fact, Turkey has had good opportunities to get to know the capabilities of the military equipment produced in Russia and other former Soviet republics, in particular, during the trials of the above-mentioned helicopter as well as the comparative evaluation trials under the Turkish Main Battle Tank Project, the participants of which included Ukraine.
Turkey has several dozens BTR-80 series armoured personnel carriers, although they are in service not with the Army, but with the Gendarmerie. But the opinion of the latter about the BTR-80 is definitely positive.
Sergyi Wey
11.01.2005