Defense Minister Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky said Hungary and Turkey are developing the Gidran combat vehicle, “a symbol of Hungarian Turkish defense cooperation”.
The minister said Turkey will deliver 40 vehicles to Hungary by the end of 2023, and they will be equipped in Kaposvár, Southern Hungary. Szalay-Bobrovniczky is on a two-day visit to Turkey, where he met his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar, and visited the Nurol Makina plant where he tested the vehicles. Later on Tuesday, Szalay-Bobrovniczky and Akar unveiled a memorial in Canakkale, western Turkey, dedicated to Austro-Hungarian artillerymen who fought in the 1915 Gallipoli campaign in the first world war, aiding the Ottoman Empire against Allied forces. In his speech, Szalay-Bobrovniczky said the courage and self-sacrifice of Turkish soldiers had elevated the memorial to Gallipoli among Turkish national memorial sites, the defence ministry said. Szalay-Bobrovniczky said the memorial, built at the initiative of the Hungarian defence ministry, was also a “memento to the historic coexistence and the joint history of the Hungarian and Turkish people, and to the respect of heroes and the courage that connects them”. Akar said the memorial was a symbol of the cooperation necessary to overcome obstacles. Hungary and Turkey have “active” cooperation, he said and called for cooperation in economy and culture as well as defence.