How lucrative is Turkey’s defense industry?
A permanent agenda item of Erdogan’s foreign travels is military cooperation and finding markets for Turkey’s defense industry products, but it's sometimes difficult to tell how much of the achievement touted in this area is real.
Among the most grandiose ambitions of Turkey's Justice and Development Party (AKP) government is making giant strides in national defense, diminishing dependence on foreign sources and eventually becoming an exporter of defense products. Concurrently, the government is making a point of emphasizing "defense and weapons" in its diplomacy.
With abundant embellished reports of inventions and major successes in production of armored vehicles, missiles, helicopters and drones, the ground is prepared for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s foreign travels.
Ismail Demir, who was appointed undersecretary of the defense industry in 2014, has accompanied Erdogan on 17 of his foreign trips. According to state-owned media Anatolian Agency, Turkey has signed agreements for defense industry cooperation with the countries of Benin, Chad, Congo, Mali, Senegal, Gabon, Romania, Gambia, Somali and Indonesia, and memorandums of understanding with Britain, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Chile and Ukraine. Turkey also has signed more-concrete military cooperation agreements with Niger, Nigeria, Djibouti, Ivory Coast, Montenegro, Qatar and Sweden. Ankara also agreed to a framework accord with British defense giant BAE Systems for Turkish national combat aircraft. Recently, Turkey was awarded Pakistan's submarine modernization project.
According to government officials, this marathon campaign supported by Erdogan’s personal credibility is based on solid foundations. But what is its scope? The latest effort to add credence to ambitious claims came at the International Defense Industry Fair held May 9-13 in Istanbul. Pro-government media claimed the fair was a sensational success.
