{"id":61185,"date":"2017-12-13T21:17:45","date_gmt":"2017-12-13T21:17:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2017\/12\/13\/nothing-more-natural-turkey-qatar-procurement-business-flourishes\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:32:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:32:27","slug":"nothing-more-natural-turkey-qatar-procurement-business-flourishes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/industry\/2017\/12\/13\/nothing-more-natural-turkey-qatar-procurement-business-flourishes\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Nothing more natural\u2019: Turkey-Qatar procurement business flourishes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ANKARA, Turkey \u2014 Much of Turkey\u2019s ups and downs in its procurement relations with other countries have gone in line with its foreign policy goals: markets lost and markets won. One recent example is flourishing business with Qatar, Turkey\u2019s only staunch ally in the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turkey and Qatar have shared common policies over multiple divergences in this very volatile part of the world. They have supported Sunni Islam and championed Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt and the Palestinian Hamas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their suspicious ally, the United States, most recently singled Turkey and Qatar as being \u201ctoo Islamist.\u201d U.S. national security adviser H.R. McMaster on Dec. 13 condemned Qatar and Turkey for taking on a \u201cnew role\u201d as the main sponsors and sources of funding for extremist Islamist ideology that targets Western interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Turkish-Qatari alliance has so far proven to be immune to Western criticism or intra-Muslim friction. For instance, Turkey powerfully sided with Qatar in June when Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt severed ties with Qatar, officially accusing Doha of supporting terrorism and destabilizing the Middle East. During the Gulf crisis, Saudi Arabia completely closed its land border with its tiny neighbor, through which much of Qatar\u2019s food supply crossed. Turkey immediately sent aid and supplies to Qatar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such strong political convergence has inevitably boosted military and procurement relations between Ankara and Doha. In 2016, Turkey\u2019s first foreign military base in the Middle East opened in Qatar to counter what Turkish and Qatari officials called \u201cthe same threats.\u201d The Turkish base houses more than 3,000 people, including ground troops, special operations teams and military trainers. The legal framework for the Turkish base had been built in 2015 when the Muslim allies signed a comprehensive military accord that gave both countries the right to deploy soldiers in each other\u2019s territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\t