The decision taken by the US against Turkey has drawn a strong reaction from OSTİM (Osmaniye Tourism and Industrial Zone). OSTİM Chairman Orhan Aydın stated that they condemn and reject the decision, saying, “We condemn and reject the US decision containing unilateral sanctions against Turkey. We stand with the Head of the Defense Industry, Prof. Dr. İsmail Demir, the Deputy Chairman of the Defense Industry Directorate and Chairman of the Board of Roketsan, Prof. Dr. Faruk Yiğit, and Mr. Serhat Gençoğlu and Mr. Mustafa Alper Deniz from the Defense Industry Directorate's Air Defense and Space Department.”
Aydın made the following statement:
“The US isn’t trying to do anything new; I define what’s being done as the global system and racist imperialism. It’s something known and recognized in the world, but because we haven’t confronted its practices, we haven’t really defined it, and it’s always been understood as a conspiracy theory.”
This is nothing new; we've been hearing, watching, and knowing about it for years, but Turkey is learning by confronting it. It's learning by experiencing and witnessing it. Yet, these weren't unknown or unwritten things. I've been hearing about these things from my elders for years, and now I have the opportunity to test how right they were.
“Similar to what we experienced in 1974”
One of the most important institutions in Turkey aware of this is the Presidency of Defense Industries. This was the institution that was aware of what was happening. On the civilian side as well, we will face the same things; there is a hidden struggle there too, an unknown, unseen hand has always prevented us from providing technology to Turkey, from producing our own technology, from ensuring our own self-sufficiency.
We were always under the impression that we should only be consumers, buyers, and obtain our needs from what they produce. They always helped us (!) while we bought and consumed their goods. They treated us with kindness (!) because they loved us so much. But as soon as we said, ‘We need to do these things ourselves, there’s no end to being constantly dependent on you, there’s no way out! We will make our own decisions, we will act independently,’ that’s when they started beating us up.
An event similar to what we experienced in 1974. This is a reality of the world; we learned this firsthand through what we recently experienced. Although it may seem like evil, the events of 1974 taught us about the Defense Industry.
The establishment of the Presidency brought us back to our senses and created an opportunity for us to do our own work. As the saying goes, "Every cloud has a silver lining"; ASELSAN and other defense industry companies were established, and the concept of heavy industry came to the forefront in Turkey. However, in subsequent years, the idea that "We have a free market economy, if we have money, we can buy whatever we want from wherever we want" prevailed.
Now we see that once again, nobody will give us our own strategic needs and products; money is no match. When we need to act freely in this region on our own, the global system, the racist imperialist world system, does not allow it.
Are we going to surrender to this? No! Just as we didn't surrender to them during the War of Independence, we won't surrender again.
“We need to establish a cluster of countries based on rights and justice.”
We need to create a friendly bloc around us. Actually, there was a model for this. With the clustering model, we bring companies together, we cooperate, we join forces, we compete jointly; we are rivals, but there are many areas where we can cooperate. We bring together 100, 200, 300 companies to create synergy. Here, too, by bringing together 3, 5, 20 countries, we can create a bloc that can rebel against the injustices, unfairness, and oppression of the global system. The D-8 was one of the applications of this. But we didn't support the D-8 enough either.
The Black Sea Economic Cooperation was a good cluster. The D-8 was a good cluster. We only held meetings and finished them; they still exist on paper, but we need to fill them with substance and turn them into a cluster movement. We need to bring countries together and establish a cluster based on rights and justice. We need to establish a rights and justice cluster. We must continue our individual efforts here, but of course, leaving this solely to the public sector would be unfair. As civil society; companies, businesses, civil society organizations, collectively.
“Mr. Demir and his colleagues are symbols of our country”
Our Head of Defense Industry and his colleagues were not subjected to these sanctions for their individual work. Professor Dr. İsmail Demir and his colleagues are symbolic figures of our country; we must stand by them and support them to the end. They are our symbols. We need to make them feel that we are with them. As a whole country, without any division or dissent, we must unite, show solidarity, and wage the struggle for freedom in economic development, just as we did in the War of Independence.
Ultimately, the concepts we call rights and justice will reveal themselves in the long run, and we must not give up on this. Currently, Turkey is going through a critical period; there are risks and potential harms, but it is also possible to turn this into an advantage and an opportunity. By utilizing this aspect and filling our companies with resources, we have reached the capability to meet many of our needs ourselves. The important thing is to bring these together, stack them on top of each other, and strive to create a synergy that forms a whole. In some areas, we have become capable of doing things independently. I believe that Turkey will find solutions in this area as well.
We condemn and reject the US decision to impose unilateral sanctions against Turkey. We stand with the Head of the Defense Industry Directorate, Prof. Dr. İsmail Demir, the Vice President of the Defense Industry Directorate and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Roketsan, Prof. Dr. Faruk Yiğit, Mr. Serhat Gençoğlu from the Air Defense and Space Department of the Defense Industry Directorate, and Mr. Mustafa Alper Deniz, Head of the Naval Branch.
“This will solidify our steps towards becoming a global player in defense.”
OSSA Chairman A. Mithat Ertuğ also stated that they condemned and rejected the US sanctions decision.
Recalling past sanctions, Ertuğ shared the following views:
“The sanctions imposed against our country, both in the past and today, will further strengthen the steps our country is taking towards becoming a global player in the defense industry, under the leadership of the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey's Defense Industry Directorate.”
The embargoes and sanctions that spearheaded the nationalization of the Turkish defense industry and paved the way for the establishment of ASELSAN, HAVELSAN, ROKETSAN, and TUSAŞ – companies featured in the world's most prestigious defense industry list, 'Defense News Top 100' – have brought our country to a position where it can produce its own land, air, and sea vehicles. OSSA members have worked tirelessly to create these platforms and systems, and continue to do so today.
“Sanctions will increase localization rates”
Today, the sanctions we are subjected to as a country will only serve to increase the domestic production rates and capabilities of our defense industry, and will lead to the establishment of new industrial companies that can produce more efficient and superior products than their foreign counterparts through new projects.
The Presidency of the Republic of Turkey's Defence Industries Directorate (SSB), represented by SSB President Prof. Dr. İsmail Demir, SSB Vice President Prof. Dr. Faruk Yiğit, SSB Maritime Branch Manager Mustafa Alper Deniz, and SSB Air Defence and Space Department Head Serhat Gençoğlu, wishes to state that, as SMEs, we will wholeheartedly support our production capacity, which will continue to increase as a result of the sanctions imposed on our country.
With the understanding that "Strong SMEs mean a strong Turkey," our SMEs, which continued to work and produce even during the pandemic, sometimes in three shifts, will, as always, not hesitate to take on the responsibility by creating synergy and unity of strength in line with the needs of our defense industry.
“To continue producing the best response”
The best response to achieving full defense industry independence and overcoming dependence on foreign sources for critical subsystems and technologies, as a result of the restructuring, infrastructure and capabilities development, and transformation of Turkey's defense industry, is to continue working and producing.
At OSSA, we are ready to mobilize all our resources to support the development of our SMEs and help them contribute to the sector by advancing their capabilities.
Despite all the challenges, the OSTİM Defence and Aerospace Cluster Association (OSSA), with its structure consisting of 269 strong subcontractor SMEs, will continue its work without slowing down in line with its goal of making our country a global player in the defense industry.
We respectfully inform the public that we will continue to work and produce tirelessly for the survival of our country, the unity of our state and nation, and a stronger defense industry, and that no force can stop us on this path.”
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