Qatar financed 49% of Turkish tank factory

Qatar financed 49 per cent of the Turkish state-owned tank track factory, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan revealed today.

Speaking at a tank track factory in the country’s northwestern Sakarya province, Erdogan said the factory belongs to the National Defence Ministry, allocated by the Turkish Treasury and Finance Ministry, adding: “In other words, this place is a state property and so it shall remain.”

However Qatar financed 49 per cent of the project.

“We cannot have our independence and future without having a strong defense industry,” Erdogan stressed.

The factory designed and produced Firtina howitzers and Poyraz ammunition carrier vehicles, he said, as well as designing, producing and renovating vehicle tracks.

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“We plan to make the Altay tank here,” he said. “I hope we will deliver the tank to the army in 2023 at the earliest.”

Turkey and Qatar are strategic partners that cooperate on a number of issues including in defence where Ankara delivered the warship ‘Doha’ to Qatar last year as part of military deals signed by the allies.

Relations between the two states strengthened in 2017 when Qatar’s neighbours, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain imposed an air, sea and land blockade on the small Gulf state.