On the anniversary of Preveze Maritime Victory, the second ship of the MILGEM project has been handed over to Naval Forces Command at a ceremony. The delivery ceremony of the TCG “Büyükada” ship, which was designed and integrated completely with the national resources, was held in İstanbul Shipyard Command at Pendik. President of the Grand National Assembly and Acting President Cemil Çiçek and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Chief of General Staff General Necdet Özel, Minister of National Defence İsmet Yılmaz, Minister of Transportation, Maritime Affairs and Communications Binali Yıldırım and many military and civilian officials attended the ceremony. In his speech, Commander of Turkish Naval Forces Admiral Recep Bülent Bostanoğlu mentioned that the seas were becoming more and more important in economic, political and military aspects, and that they constituted a base for economic struggle and that they were indispensable for human beings. Bostanoğlu expressed that the ideal of reinforced naval forces as an objective and government policy has always been important during the Republic period. He added that the national ship manufacturing and repairing industry was founded in the early republican years. 

Bostanoğlu said that following the manufacturing of the Gölcük Oil Carrier, cooperation in military ship building with foreign countries started and continued in the manufacturing of submarines, torpedo boats and frigates after 1970’s and added: “In 1990’s, the know-how and experience we accumulated in military shipyards encouraged us in designing and building a national  battleship in our country. With this confidence, the design and manufacturing studies of the MILGEM corvette that has been designed completely with national resources with the contribution of domestic institutions and companies under the leadership of Naval Forces Command and MILGEM Project Office were launched in 2004. MILGEM Project is a project developed nationally by Turkish workers and engineers demonstrating what could be achieved on a global scale with national resources and gathering all the critical task systems in a single platform. Our Ship Integrated Combat Management System known as Genesis has been developed nationally as well and has been used in a national platform for the first time within the scope of the project and as a result Turkey entered a league of few countries with combat management and integration system. Two years ago today, MILGEM Project’s first ship “Heybeliada” went into service and has been waving our flag in the Atlantic Ocean and surrounding seas ever since, made many visits to the harbors of friendly and ally countries, successfully accomplished all her assignments in operations and exercises and thus won the confidence of the Turkish people”.