The country that spends the greatest amount for defense purposes in the Middle East is Iran. This country, whose relations with the US and the West have been uneasy since 1979, now occupies the top of the list because of its nuclear ambitions. Saudi Arabia follows Iran, while Israel stands in third place with $27.2 billion. The defense expenditures of other countries are as follows: Syria $6 billion (fifth), Kuwait $4.8 billion (sixth), Egypt $3.3 billion (seventh), Oman $2.7 billion (eighth), the United Arab Emirates $2.5 billion (ninth) and Jordan $800 million (10th). Britain spends the most on defense in Europe, followed by France, Germany and Italy. Turkey ranks fifth after Italy, with Spain following Turkey. Meanwhile, Israel's total expenditures -- $27.2 billion -- exceed the total sum of defense expenditures made by Spain, Poland, Greece, Norway and the Netherlands combined. Turkey, which has one of the largest armed forces in the Middle East, focuses its spending on developing unique technology. With the exception of Turkey, Israel and Iran, most Middle Eastern countries prefer direct procurement in defense spending; however, Turkey particularly concentrates on exclusive designs and spends $3.5 billion on unique defense technology yearly. To this end, it focuses on research and development so it will have the fastest growing defense industry in the Middle East and Europe by 2010.
It is, of course, pretty important that Turkey focuses mostly on investments for homegrown technology rather than arms procurement. However, if you do not have the initiative for technological development, you have to be constantly competitive; this can be compared to drinking salty water to deal with thirst. For this reason, access to technological information and power is no big deal, because the most important factor leading to the collapse of the Soviet Union was its conviction that it was unable to sustain the competitive race vis-à-vis the Reagan-led Star Wars Project by relying on a first-class military power and a third-class economic and socio-political system.
It is useful to think over the approach of Europe and the EU towards this issue: as you may know, the EU doesn't have an armed force of its own yet. There are discussions on such a force for the EU and, of course, no matter how wealthy it is, a country may not sustain its hegemonic domination in terms of the general parameters of the international security system if it doesn't have a strong military. This is not only for the protection of economic wealth and political independence, this also applies to the power struggles over energy resources and energy transportation routes, which lead to bloody wars of distribution.
But it should also be noted that the current situation in Europe is the primary reason for its economic development and wealth in the near past. It may seem a little paradoxical; but in actuality, Europe had the opportunity to make investments in efficient projects instead of defense expenditure thanks to NATO protection led by the US following the end of World War II. This is one of the primary reasons for the rapid development of Germany in this period, despite its devastation in the war.
Coming back to Turkey after this brief explanation, as underlined in the said report, Turkey ranks first in Europe in terms of size of its armed forces, and stands fifth in defense expenditures. If it becomes a full member in the EU, will Turkey's integration with the system, as a NATO country that spends large sums on defense, serve its own interests or those of the EU? This is an important question.
Benzer Haberler 
