Security, Defence and Defence Industry 2023 Congress

Turkey’s Strategic Vision 2023 – Strategic Locomotive Sectors

Security, Defence and Defence Industry 2023 Congress was held on 18-19 October at Hilton, Ankara. Making an opening speech at the congress organized by Turkish Asian Centre for Strategic Studies (TASAM), Mr Süleyman Şensoy, President of TASAM, stated that TASAM is a think tank and has been performing activities mainly at 9 different fields at international policy. Şensoy shared some information with the participants regarding the studies being performed on these 9 different fields and said: "TASAM has been contributing to Turkey in international policy field by making corporate connections with countries, by congresses organized on annual basis and round-table meetings held with the countries in the region, through academic publications and reports."

Şensoy: "China and Russia are tried to be isolated"

Sharing information also on changing world orders and security strategies, Şensoy stated that European countries have been targeting changes regarding global competition especially on North Africa, Middle East and South Asia and these targets are gathered under three topics. "We understand that European countries have been aiming at new liberal economic zone, new security zone as well as isolation of China and Russia. From this point of view, we perceive that this European paradigm is tried to be strengthened in the next 100 years" said Şensoy. He also stated that Turkey needs time to be a global player within its region and to this end the human resources transformation should be achieved, 10.000 USD limit of domestic income should be exceeded and prosperity and technology transformation should be realized. "Turkey wants to take place amongst the world’s 10 biggest economiesin 2023 and achieve 500 billion dollars export goal. However when we look at 2011 export-import figures, we need to make 900 billion dollars of imports in order to achieve 500 billion dollars of exports. It is impossible for Turkey to finance 400-billion-dollar-difference even for one year. Turkey should make transition to the advanced technology product portfolio from low and medium technology product portfolio" added Şensoy.

Şensoy: "Russia to make 680-billion-dollars capacity increase in the next decade"

Şensoy stated that Russia has declared to make 680-billion-dollars capacity increase in defence industry field in the next decade and added that the competition at this field will be more accelerated during the next years.

"The progress to be achieved in defence industry field has a critical role for strengthening Turkey’s strategic, politic and economic efficiency. Significant allocations should be made from public investments to defence industry sector. Turkey has potential to increase its current capacity and should focus on soft power concept" continued Şensoy.

Bayar: "Cyprus Peace Operation reminded Turkey of the need for defence industry"

In his speech delivered at the Congress, the Undersecretary for Defence Industries (SSM) Murad Bayar stated that the perception of country’s need for defence industry emerged during Cyprus Peace Operation and thus the studies related with the defence industry were initiated during those years.

Bayar said that the geography where Turkey is located has its specific challenges and accordingly Turkey has to generate its own foreign policy. He emphasized that the country should comply with this foreign policy in terms of military and technological aspects.

Bayar: "We realized 22-billion-dollar project in the last decade"

Referring the significance of dynamics and capacity of the defence industry for being amongst the world’s 10 biggest economies in 2023, Bayar continued: "Defence Industry is one of the locomotive sectors in achieving this goal but half of the glass is still empty. We are working hard to fill in the other half. We, as SSM, realized projects at a total of 22 billion dollars in the last decade.We have two companies taking part in the world’s top 100 defence companies; however our goal and expectation is to see our companies amongst top 50 companies". Bayar emphasized that the only sector investing in technology in Turkey is the defence sector and added that the shares allocated to R&D studies were quadrupled compared to previous years.

Bayar also stated that he visited the defence industry facilities of the countries such as UAE, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia and Kyrgyzstan and as per his analysis Turkey is the only country that has the prospects and potentials in terms of human resources, universities, government policies and public expectations. He noted that defence sector was amongst 10 sectors selected by TASAM and added that they should work very hard for the set goals.

New Security Environment and Turkey’s Defence Industry

"New Security Environment and Turkey’s Defence Industry" themed session was held following Bayar’s speech. Professor Nurşin Güney from Yıldız Technical University delivered a speech at the session and said the states were the threats during the cold war period but today they are replaced with non-state actors and the threat perception changed as a result. Noting that Turkey is in a complicated status at far and near geographies, Güneyalso stated that Turkey should become a security-producing country rather than being a security-consuming country.

In his speech delivered at the Congress, SSM Deputy Undersecretary Sedat Güldoğan said that the defence industry volume of Turkey increased and reached at 5 billion dollars. "Turkey has been participating in all defence industry fairs either as national participation or in company level. Creating a Turkish brand is of the utmost importance for us. We believe that Turkey will be a role model for the region countries" added Güldoğan.

Director at FNSS Defence Systems, Haluk Bulucumade a presentation at the session on Turkey’s security and defence deficiencies from past to present. Bulucunoted that Turkey’s trade and industry have been increasing progressively and thus the defence expenditures should increase accordingly in order to achieve 2023 goals. "In Turkey, there has been a cutback in defence spending in recent years. A powerful economy is needed for a powerful army and sound foreign policy. In this respect, the defence spending should be 4-6% of gross national income" said Bulucu.

Acting Vice President Hasan Palaz ofThe Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) stated at the session that the universities should feature efficiently in educating and training people as well as in the determination of technologies to be developed at their institutes; the SMEs should also be competent and experienced in selling goods to the world. He also mentioned that cyber-security and cyber-attacks are the most important topics of the world and emphasized that Turkey should allocate resources on this matter and make deterrence and prevention studies without delay.

Other sessions of Security, Defence and Defence Industry 2023 Congress were held on Technology Management 2023 on Defence Industry, Sustainable Defence Industry Policies in Multidimensional Global Competition and Role of Defence Industry in Turkish Multidimensional Foreign Policy.