“What Do You Mean: A Foundation Company?” Remembering the Early Days of Turkish Ground Forces Foundation and Aselsan

At these pages of Defence Turkey, I try to write on issues of science and technology and share my observations in the defence industry. I had started to write on a similar subject when was shocked by the news about passing away of my dear friend, my big brother Necip Berkman (past General Manager of Aselsan and STM, past General Secretary of SaSaD – Defence and Aerospace Industries Manufacturers Association). I remembered our venture at first years of Aselsan/Turkish Ground Forces Foundation and suddenly realized that we must write about the atmosphere of defence industry in mid-70’s, a period which is very important in the history of Turkish defence industry. Ret. Gen. Turhan Olcaytu was the Chairman of Turkish Ground Forces Foundation; Mr. Hacim Kamoy the General Manager of Aselsan and we were a handful of young engineers, all graduates of Middle East Technical University. In this issue of Defence Turkey, I say “verba volant, scripta manent - spoken words fly away, written words remain” and try to describe this atmosphere.

40 years ago, the defence industry in Turkey was very different from today’s scene. Defence industry consisted of a government owned arsenal type of weapon/ammunition producer, MKEK and some naval shipyards. United States was the dominant source for high technology products such as communication, electronic warfare equipment, radars, tanks and rockets/missiles etc.  Then came the Cyprus affair in 1974 with resulting embargo on various technologies/components/equipment. On the other hand military operations in Cyprus proved the importance of a reliable communication and triggered developments in Turkish defence sector.  

Turkish Ground Forces Foundation was established in 1974 to provide financial source and a company (Aselsan) was established to design and produce military electronic equipment. (Later on Turkish Ground Forces Foundation united with foundations established for other forces forming Turkish Armed Forces Foundation of today. The number of “foundation” companies increased to include TAI, Havelsan, Roketsan… About 10 years later we witnessed another milestone in Turkish defence industry with the establishment of Undersecretary of Defence Industry-SSM which led to much wider spread of the industry. But these are not in the period I try to articulate here.)

If we return to mid-70’s the major financial source of Turkish Ground Forces Foundation was donations from ordinary people. Our foreign colleagues frequently asked about this interesting foundation. In many countries we are familiar with some charity foundations supported by public donations. But it was really difficult to understand the reason for donations from common people to establish a company in defence industry. 

To understand the foundation concept first we must glance its cultural roots. We can see a modest foundation for a midsize mosque in a small Anatolian town. In addition to the mosque, the foundation owns a few shops. The income from shops is used for current costs and maintenance of the mosque. Hence with this self-sustained structure mosques have served the community for centuries.

Secondly we must review the public psychology in mid-70’s in Turkey after the Cyprus affair and embargo. I can mention a few cases we witnessed:

As Aselsan managers we used to cooperate very closely with experts in Foundation and passed most of our time in their flat. One day I noticed a small needy boy in the corridor. When I asked who he was, they replied, “He is a street peddler of simit. Each weekend he comes and donates a few TL which is a portion of his week’s income”. I remember kissing his cheeks with tears in my eyes.

Similarly I remember meeting a farmer. He came with some maps and two sons. Showed agricultural land he owned on a map and said “I have two sons. I want to divide my land into tree equal parcels and give one to Foundation.” Today the incident seems very super natural. But we set around a table, worked on the map and tried to divide the land into three equal shares.

A frequent visitor of Foundation used to bring some biscuits and chocolates every time. When I thanked him and expressed that I was a bit shamed because of this gratis behaviour, my colloquies told “This is nothing. He provided baklava to all sailors in landing ships preparing for landing to Northern shores of Cyprus.”

The other aspect of the same phenomenon was prevailing at Aselsan. We were under a heavy embargo pressure for a number of electronic components. Many foreign companies were not answering our messages and telephone calls. The list of embargo items was very long and detailed. But many companies exaggerated even this long list. The following examples will clarify what I mean by “exaggeration”: 

According to the technical specifications of man-pack military radios, the fabric bag of the radio should be infra-red repellent. For the first production batch of radios we imported cotton from Egypt; sent to a company in Europe which produced and painted thread with infrared-repellent paint; we imported the thread and gave it to a bag manufacturer in Ankara.

Because of “military” in our name (in those years Aselsan logo was accompanied with label: “Askeri Elektronik - Military Electronics”) we had difficulty to import common electronic laboratory equipment such as oscilloscopes, frequency counters etc.

In our machine shop we had to produce our screws-nuts, punch and corrugate aluminium sheets. The first investment casted steel part in Turkey was produced for us.

I don’t wish anybody to experience such difficulties from now on, but I flashback and utter the opening lines of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, … it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us …”