US tops Turkey's arms exports list

The United States has become the top market for Turkish arms as the exports from Turkey's defense sectors increased by 38 percent in 2012, Turkish media said Monday. Analysts said that the upcoming gun control measures in the United States had led to a surge in the demand for more firearms, which boosted Turkey's gun exports to the country. Statistics showed that the Turkish defense companies increased their exports to 1.3 billion U.S. dollars last year, a 43-percent significant increase over 2011. Among the arms buyers, the United States ranked No.1 by purchasing a 490 million dollars worth of defense products from Turkey last year. The United Arab Emirates followed with 101 million dollars, while Saudi Arabia came third with 99 million dollars. Turkey's defense sector aims to sell 1.5 billion worth of arms this year.