Turkey Spends $205 million On Armored Water Cannons

The Turkish Finance Ministry has spent 10 times than previous year on buying armored water cannons, armored carriers and helicopters for the police due to escalating violence in the nation.

“The ministry spent an upward of 628 million liras (US $205 million) this year while it spent 60 million liras (US $19.6 million) in the same period last year,” the finance ministry statement was quoted by Hurriyet news daily Thursday.

“With accelerating moves to fight terrorism this year, some spending, which had earlier been scheduled to be made at the end of the year, has been rescheduled to earlier dates,” said the statement.

“In this vein, there has been an increase in vehicle acquisitions by the National Police General Directorate. While around 900,000 liras (US $30,000) worth of aerial vehicles were bought by the police forces in the first eight months of 2014, this figure rose to 76.9 million liras (US $25 million) in the same period of this year due to the rise in helicopter acquisitions.

Besides, while around 34 million liras (US $11 million) worth armored water cannons, armored personnel carriers and other vehicles in the first eight months of 2014, this figure increased to 207 million liras (US $68 million) in the same period of 2015,” added the statement.