In a development that is expected to contribute to the downward spiral in Turkish-American relations, the United States government has reportedly filed espionage charges against three Department of Defense contractors with Turkish background. The three are believed to have been charged with transferring US military secrets abroad and are currently in prison.
A statement published by the US Pentagon
said that the group consists of two men and a woman, all of whom are of
Turkish background. Two of them are naturalized American citizens. They
are listed as owners of a company that conducts research in military
technology and has contracted for many years with the US Pentagon. All
contracts were allegedly won following competitive bids and can only be
awarded to bidders who are in possession of US citizenship and top
security clearances. According to Turkey’s pro-government English-language newspaper, Daily Sabah,
the three contractors have helped develop and manufacture parts for
missile-launching systems used on American warplanes. They have also
worked on several generations of grenade launchers used by the US
military.
But on Sunday, the three contractors were
arrested in simultaneous raids and charged with “funneling military
secrets out of the country”, according to Sabah. The paper said
the US government decided to arrest the three once it became known that
some hardware parts related to the Pentagon bids handled by their
company were being illegally manufactured in Turkey. There is no
information in the Pentagon’s press release on whether the top-secret
military components were also shared with the Turkish government.
Relations between Washington and Ankara, two North Atlantic Treaty
Organization member-states, have suffered since the failed July 15
military coup in Turkey. Many in the administration of Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan blame Washington for the coup and for allegedly
shielding the man behind it, the Islamic cleric Muhammed Fethullah
Gülen, who lives in the US state of Pennsylvania.
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