Defence Turkey: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused quite radical changes in business as well as in our daily lives. Naturally, all sectors are affected from this situation and it’s no surprise to see that a significant amount of investment is being made now in the healthcare sector.  Could you please inform us on the measures that HAVELSAN has implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, your activities, and ongoing applications? 

Ahmet Hamdi ATALAY: HAVELSAN is one of the first companies that took action in this area. We have a well-functioning occupational health and safety council. In addition to our colleagues in this council, we have a healthcare unit, a doctor and a psychologist. This unit and the occupational health and safety unit are in close collaboration; they have been assessing the situation and submitting reports to me and the executive committee since the beginning of this period. Nearly four weeks ago, our executive board came up with the idea that we needed to adopt certain actions that would have a direct impact on our daily lives. Fortunately, no cases have been reported so far, but our employees were getting worried due to the developments they heard in the press and in their social environments. So, we examined the issue very seriously and held a comprehensive executive board meeting that lasted for a few hours with the participation of all our executives. For the first time, during that week we had a break. We let all our employees - except our employees and executives who had to fulfill urgent tasks regarding our commitments to our customers or our responsibilities towards our government or those who had to work on various administrative processes – take a leave for a week. This was 4 weeks ago and during that break, nearly 30% of our employees were at the facilities to perform urgent tasks. The remaining 65% to 70% were subject to leave. We conducted both our urgent business and made plans for the aftermath with the 30% on site in the office; actually, we executed quite comprehensive activities. Some of these activities were technical and others were organizational. We conducted activities regarding hygiene measures or measures in a broad sense to be adopted against the pandemic and revealed a plan which we have been implementing ever since.