A senior official of Turkey’s state-run weapons manufacturer has been arrested on espionage charges, after he was caught selling weapons blueprints to the employee of an arms firm based in the United States. The official was named by Turkish authorities as Mustafa Tanriverdi, the general manager of one of Turkey’s largest weapons production facilities, located in the town of Kirikkale, 50 miles east of Turkish capital Ankara. Tanriverdi is reportedly employed by the Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation (MKE), a government-run manufacturing firm that provides much of the Turkish Armed Forces’ weaponry. The company also has a growing list of international buyers, which includes nearly 30 foreign governments.
Tanriverdi was arrested on Thursday by undercover members of Turkey’s security services, as he was leaving a restaurant in Ankara. Moments earlier, he had sold design blueprints and production plans for two MKE-manufactured weapons. According to Turkish authorities, the plans related to two Turkish-designed weapons, namely the MPT-76 infantry rifle and the MP-5 submachine gun. Tanriverdi is accused of having sold the information on the weapons for nearly $500,000 to an unnamed man working for a Turkish-owned weapons manufacturer that is based in the US.
Reports in the Turkish media said the man who purchased Tanriverdi’s documents is a US-based Turkish business executive. But his name remains unknown, as he is identified only as K.K. in news reports. Allegedly, K.K. had notified Turkish authorities about Tanriverdi and was himself part of a sting operation aimed at apprehending the Turkish official. The latter has now been charged with espionage, disloyalty to the Turkish state and exploiting state secrets for financial gain. He is said to have told the authorities that he did not sell classified information but was instead striking a “legitimate business agreement” with a man he thought was a weapons trader working for Turkey.
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