• About
  • Contact
  • News Tips
Saturday, June 10, 2023
Nordic Monitor
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Extremism
  • Military
  • Terrorism and Crime
  • Intelligence
  • Foreign Policy
  • Contact Us
    • Give us a tip!
  • About Us
  • Home
  • Extremism
  • Military
  • Terrorism and Crime
  • Intelligence
  • Foreign Policy
  • Contact Us
    • Give us a tip!
  • About Us
No Result
View All Result
Nordic Monitor
No Result
View All Result

Deputy defense minister admits Turkey unable to provide military with necessary matériel due to poor economy

by Levent Kenez
May 9, 2023
Deputy defense minister admits Turkey unable to provide military with necessary matériel due to poor economy

Levent Kenez/Stockholm

Turkey’s deputy minister of defense admitted that the government cannot fully meet the needs of the military in terms of supplying it with new equipment and weapons due to the poor state of the Turkish economy, during a Sunday meeting of a pro-government business platform that brings together industrialists from around İstanbul.

Speaking at the general assembly of the SAHA Istanbul Defense, Aviation and Aerospace Platform led by Haluk Bayraktar, brother of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s son-in-law and CEO of military drone producer Baykar Makina, Deputy Defense Minister Muhsin Dere said Turkey’s defense spending has decreased in recent years. According to Dere, the reason is not a decrease in needs but rather a decrease in purchases.

Dere said Turkey would soon have to supply the military with a large amount of equipment and weapons.

“God willing, Turkey’s economic situation will be much better, and we will meet the needs of the army from A to Z,” he added.

Muhsin Dere 

Turkey’s military expenditures amounted to $10.6 billion last year, a decrease of 26 percent compared to 2021. Turkey ranked 23rd among the countries with the highest military spending last year.

According to data from the International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), headquartered in Stockholm, global military expenditures have slowed this year due to inflation, despite reaching a record level last year.

Global military spending increased by 3.7 percent in 2022, impacted by Russia’s war in Ukraine, to an all-time high of $2.24 trillion.

Haluk Bayraktar, chairman of the board of SAHA Istanbul, said while Turkey increased its defense and aerospace turnover and exports, on the other hand, it had transferred fewer resources for the importation of military goods and claimed that defense expenditures fell thanks to increased domestic production.

The Erdogan government has been facing increasing restrictions, embargoes and sanctions on the defense industry not only by its NATO allies but also by its trading partners such as Russia over growing concerns that it may harbor irredentist ambitions. The restrictions and in some cases the ban on the sale of military goods and defense industry products as well as precision machine tools is a direct response to Turkey’s military adventurism in cross-border operations that have extended from Libya to the Caucasus and from Syria to the eastern Mediterranean in recent years.

 The first public revelation that Turkey has come under an embargo on dual use goods for civilian needs on fears they may be used for military purposes came from Defense Minister Hulusi Akar. Speaking to lawmakers at a parliamentary committee meeting on November 16, 2021, Akar said: “We are really faced with undeclared embargoes. We can’t get the desired response even from some of our allies, not only in these military matters, in the defense industry, but also in other civil production matters on the grounds that they can be used in any way for this or that purpose.”

Nordic Monitor previously reported that sanctions and export restrictions imposed on Turkey’s ambitious defense industry had taken a toll on the development of sophisticated military hardware, which suffers from the lack of domestically produced components, in particular critical engines and transmission systems.

In an interview with a Turkish TV station on September 4, 2022, İsmail Demir, head of the Presidency of the Defense Industry (Savunma Sanayii Baskanligi, SSB), Turkey’s top defense procurement agency, admitted that the agency has faced challenges in developing power packs including engines and transmissions for various defense projects.

It’s not only the parts but also a shortage of qualified engineers that is hindering progress, he stated.

“The engine issue is a known [problem]. As for trained personnel and expertise, we also don’t have extensive experience. There are a limited number of experts [in Turkey],” said Demir, who was sanctioned by the US over Turkey’s purchase of the Russian S-400 long-range missile system.

Turkey has a number of national aircraft and tank projects, but they suffered a setback because of the difficulty in finding engines and transmission systems to power the equipment. 

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu also stated at the Istanbul Security Forum organized by the government, which he attended online last week, that the sanctions imposed on Turkey by NATO allies are unacceptable and contrary to the spirit of the alliance.

The defense industry is one of the issues that Erdogan has brought up the most at election rallies before the May 14 presidential election. One of Erdogan’s election strategies is to show voters that Turkey is becoming stronger by promoting domestically produced defense industry products.

Previous Post

Former intelligence officer, Russia expert was asked to smear Germany to regain his freedom

Next Post

Erdogan’s cronies set plans in motion to flee Turkey in case of electoral defeat

Levent Kenez

Levent Kenez

[email protected]

Next Post
Erdogan’s cronies set plans in motion to flee Turkey in case of electoral defeat

Erdogan’s cronies set plans in motion to flee Turkey in case of electoral defeat

Donate

Nordic Monitor

Nordic Monitor is a news web site and tracking site that is run by the Stockholm-based Nordic Research and Monitoring Network. It covers religious, ideological and ethnic extremist movements and radical groups, with a special focus on Turkey.

Tags

al-Qaeda Andrei Karlov Andrei Karlov China coup Cyprus Diyanet Egypt espionage Germany Greece Gülen Movement Hakan Fidan Hulusi Akar Iran IRGC Quds Force ISIL ISIS Isis al-qaida Israel Libya Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu MIT Muslim Brotherhood NATO President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Profiling Qatar Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Russia SADAT Saudi Arabia spying Spying Activities Suleyman Soylu Sweden Syria The United States Torture Turkey Turkish Intelligence Agency UID Ukraine United States Yasin al-Qadi

Recent News

Spain joins military exercise with breakaway Turkish Cyprus despite Greece’s objections

Spain joins military exercise with breakaway Turkish Cyprus despite Greece’s objections

June 9, 2023
Classified report confirms President Erdoğan’s critic in Kyrgyzstan kidnapped by Turkish spy agency MIT

Turkey’s former spymaster, the new foreign minister, to transform diplomatic service into intelligence tool

June 8, 2023
Turkish intelligence agency MIT fabricated assassination plot against Erdoğan’s daughter to smear critics

Turkish intelligence agency MIT fabricated assassination plot against Erdoğan’s daughter to smear critics

June 7, 2023

Copyright © Nordic Research and Monitoring Network All rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Extremism
  • Military
  • Terrorism and Crime
  • Intelligence
  • Foreign Policy
  • Contact Us
    • Give us a tip!
  • About Us

Copyright © Nordic Research and Monitoring Network All rights reserved.