BOLU
Turkish Deputy Minister of Foresty and Water Works, Nurettin Akman has stated that Turkey will use Sikorsky made choppers for fire suppression.
Akman informed AA that before 2012, every year forest fires burnt approximately 4 thousand hectares of area and unfortunately, last year this rose to 10 thousand hectares of fields.
Akman stressed that some forest fires were made intentionally and some were occurring by sabotages.
He said, "PKK terror organization's forest fire in Hatay caused the burning of 3 thousand hectares of area. When we look at Spain, they have 200 thousand hectares of areas being burnt down and in Italy this number goes up to 60 thousand hectares of woods. When compared to other Mediterranean countries, we cope with forest fire suppression much better than them."
He noted that in the framework of "fire suppression works", they plan to rise the number of aircrafts and more, they are in close cooperation with defense industry.
He stated that in the scope of their fire suppression project, they plan to buy 20 Sikorsky made choppers up till 2020 and said, "Sikorksy helicopters will be used in forest fire suppresion."
Reporting by Emin Gurbuz
