Turkey halts parachute tender to French firm

ANKARA- Anatolia News Agency

Turkey’s civil aviation association has decided not to buy French parachutes.

The Turkish Aviation Board (THK) has suspended a parachute tender, awarded to a French company, the head of THK Osman Yıldırım said Feb. 11.

“We launched a tender to purchase 150 parachutes some time ago, and a French company won the tender, but we suspended the tender after the French Senate adopted a resolution on the denial of Armenian allegations regarding the incidents of 1915,” Yıldırım told an Anatolia news agency reporter.

Yıldırım said THK would make public the result of the 500,000 Euro tender if France took a step backward.
The French Senate adopted a law that penalizes the denial of Armenian allegations regarding the 1915 incidents during the Ottoman Empire period. Under the law, anyone who denies the Armenian allegations may be sentenced to one year in prison and a 45,000 euro fine.

On Feb. 7, 77 French senators and 65 parliamentarians applied to the French Constitutional Council to annul the law. The council is expected to announce its decision within one month.