TURKEY EXCLUDES FRENCH COMPANIES FROM KEY TENDERS

PanARMENIAN.Net - 24.01.2001, MEDIAMAX, YEREVAN. Turkey on Tuesday said it had canceled a $259 million satellite contract with Alcatel and might exclude French state-owned arms maker GIAT from a tank tender over a French parliament resolution accusing Turks of genocide, world news agencies report.

"We have canceled a tender relating to an intelligence satellite. It had been given to Alcatel and a preliminary agreement had been worked out,'' Defense Minister Sabahattin Cakmakoglu told reporters in Ankara.

He said other sanctions were being considered, such as excluding Giat Industries from bidding for a 4 billion US dollars order for 1,000 tanks.

Alcatel declined comment on Turkey's decision on Tuesday to scrap a key defense deal with the French Alcatel company. "We are not making any comment," an Alcatel spokeswoman told AFP.

Loss-making Giat said it had not received official word from Turkey. "We have had no official information," said a spokeswoman for Giat. "It is true that we are concerned, just like all French companies," she said. -0--