Turkey and Greece: Military spending and economy

By Eser Karakaş [Today's Zaman]

Turkish-Greek relations are passing through an interesting period. Mr. Derviş Eroğlu, who does not favor settlement of the Cyprus issue as part of his political affiliation and tradition, became the president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) and will take the helm of the negotiations.
                                                                                                                           
Although the authority that has/will have the last word in the negotiations, it will be interesting to see how he conducts the negotiations in the post-Mehmet Ali Talat period.

Greece is going through the worst economic crisis since its civil war, and this great crisis and the country's need to change individual and institutional economic behavior may urge it to make radical decisions.

In this interesting period, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is paying an important visit to Athens, and if this visit triggers winds of friendship on both coasts of the Aegean Sea, there will be much for both countries to celebrate.

During this visit, the issue of mutual military spending will be an agenda item. I would like to provide readers with some standard information about the military spending and economic performance of these two countries for purposes of comparison.

Turkey's military spending about $14 billion in 2009

In 2009, Turkey spent about $10 billion of its central budget on military expenditures, not including the Undersecretariat for the Defense Industry (SSM) fund. Using a general definition of military spending and a comparable exchange rate, we can say that Turkey's military spending was about $14 billion in 2009. Since military service is a compulsory and unpaid service, the spending on personnel is not included in these calculations, meaning that if the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) employs even a small portion of professional soldiers, Turkey's military spending would be much higher. Indeed, if economists calculate the opportunity costs of the currently applicable military recruitment methods, the result would certainly point to enormous budgets.

The TSK has about 600,000 members, and the breakdown of this figure is as follows: about 500,000 are part of the Land Forces, 50,000 are in the Naval Forces and 60,000 in the Air Forces.

The TSK also has about 4,500 tanks and about 430 warplanes.

I obtained these simple statistics from a number of foreign magazines and newspapers, and since they are neither Turkish nor Greek sources, we can assume that it is easier and more meaningful to compare them.

Greece allocates $6.5 billion to its military spending, but using a comparable exchange rate, its military spending overall slightly exceeds $10 billion. Given the fact that Greece's population is 10 million, roughly corresponding to one-seventh of ours, the rate of military spending per capita in this country is considerably high.

Yet, the rate of military spending per capita is not considered by many to be a meaningful indicator in defense economy terms because the effectiveness of military spending becomes completely irrelevant to the rate of military spending per capita if the two armies confront each other.

Still, we can give rough figures for this rate: It is about $200 per capita in Turkey, while it skyrockets to $1,000 for Greece. But I reiterate that military spending per capita is not a very operative definition for the defense economy.

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