Aztek logo
Aztek signs NIS 12M deal with Turkey
Israeli licensing solutions provider chosen to supply small, medium-size businesses in Turkey with Microsoft products. 'Doing business in Turkey has definitely become much harder,' says company official. 'We even had two clients, who came outright and told us, 'We don’t want to work with you because you're Jewish'
Despite the growing tension between Jerusalem and Ankara, Israeli company Aztek Technologies Ltd. was awarded a NIS 12 million (about $3.03 million) contract, under which it would market Microsoft products to the Turkish market.
Founded by Joel Salzman and Akiva Tekuzener in 1984, Aztek provides licensing solutions from the world’s largest software manufacturers, and is one of only four companies in Israel mandated to license Microsoft products.
Tensions
Danny Sadeh
Tensions between Jerusalem, Ankara translate into slump in outgoing tourism industry, strenuous industrial relations
Atlastech, a subsidiary of Aztek, would be heading the deal; using Atlas Online – its local internet provider avenue – in order to provide various small and medium-size businesses in Turkey with Microsoft licenses.
Atlas Online will compete with several Turkish online service providers.
"Doing business in Turkey has definitely become much harder over the past few weeks," Mark Blank, Aztek's vice president of technologies, told Ynet.
"It's not just a problem for Israelis; it's a problem for Jews in general. We even had two clients, who have been working with us for over a year and came outright and told us, 'We don’t want to work with you because you're Jewish.' They also ended their business relations with our local contacts. Luckily for us, they were small clients."
Nevertheless, Blank pointed out the vast difference between the secular Turks and the Muslim ones: "There is a big difference between the secular and religious Turks. The majority of our clients are not religious and they continue working with us as usual, because for them, Israel is part of the Western world.
"The problem now is that the Turkish government is religious. We don’t work with the government because the mount a lot of difficulties for Israeli businesses or those owned by Jews."
Joel Salzman, co-founder and CEO of Aztek, added that "getting into the Turkish market was a challenge for us. We welcome the new deal and we are sure our subsidiary would be able to give our new clients the prefect licensing solutions. It is a 70-million people market and I believe it is the beginning of extensive operations for us in Turkey."
