Turkish police to buy 50 new vehicles with water cannons

ISTANBUL

Katmerciler Ekipman announced that it has won another bid to supply Turkey’s police force with 50 riot control vehicles equipped with water cannons, known as TOMAs, in a written statement issued to the Public Disclosure Platform on Nov. 24.

The police will pay 11.7 million euros to the company for the TOMAs, said the statement.

Katmerciler also won a bid to supply 65 TOMAs to the police in October for 13.6 million euros, it announced in a written statement.

The company, which is owned by former Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy İsmail Katmerci, emerged as one of the biggest winners from last year’s nationwide Gezi Park demonstrations.

Proving that there’s no such thing as bad publicity, Katmerciler’s trademark TOMAs gained such international fame during the police crackdowns on protests that the company was able to enter a number of new markets, including Brazil and Libya.