BY ATILGAN BAYAR
AKSAM - NATO established an organization in 1958 so that member countries can jointly carry out the maintenance, feeding, supply and technical work related to their armed forces' weapons, ammunition and equipment in times of war and peace. This organization is called NATO Maintenance and Supply Organization, namely, NAMSO. The NAMSO members are Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, Britain and the US. The NAMSO also consists of an operational agency called NAMSA, which was established to furnish service in cooperation, as it was considered that the NATO member armed forces' ownership of all kinds of maintenance, repair, cleansing and similar systems would be very expensive. This agency is certainly a non-profit organization. You can access these principles on http://www.namsa.nato.int/about/about_e.htm.
So the NATO member Turkey has necessary equipment and organization to clear the mines in the framework of its borders. The NAMSO/NAMSA is responsible for undertaking this job at cost. Turkey is also entitled to purchase this service from NATO at cost. This information shows us that the thesis of 'Turkish army doesn't have the equipment to clear the mines within its own borders' is totally invalid and that the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) is the member of an organization which would carry out the clearing work and its organizational agency under same conditions as other NATO member countries.
Firstly we should be aware of this fact. Then we can discuss if we can give out the work of clearing the mines on our Syrian border to other parties by contract, in the case that this work doesn't cause a threat of National Security or provide Turkey with great financial benefits. But Turkey has the necessary possibilities and partnership within the NATO so that this clearing work can be carried out. It's not obliged to make a third party, for example, Israil, perform this job. The clearing work to be carried out by NAMSA means the cleansing work to be carried out by TSK itself. We haven't become a NATO member without any reason. While talking about the conditions of giving out the work of clearing the mines to foreigners, the public shouldn't think that Turkey isn't capable of doing this.