Turkish military vehicles being deployed on the border with Syria as reinforcements in February 2020.
Photographer: Agência Burak Milli / Anadolu via Getty Images
Photographer: Agência Burak Milli / Anadolu via Getty Images
Last year, Selcuk Bayraktar helped resolve conflicts in Libya and Azerbaijan, thousands of miles from his home in Turkey.
A former MIT research student married to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s youngest daughter, Bayraktar was instrumental in Turkey’s emergence as a producer of armed drones. In 2020, his company’s Baykar TB2 unmanned planes were used with devastating effects by the governments of Tripoli and Baku, both of Turkey’s allies.
The 41-year-old man, whose surname means “standard bearer”, shares Erdogan’s ambition to make the projection of Turkey’s military power more self-sufficient. They are spearheading an effort to acquire homemade kits that is launching Ankara into unsettling new alliances and convulsive ties with traditional NATO partners.
The Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drone on December 16, 2019 at the Gecitkale military air base, near Famagusta, in the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
Photographer: Birol Bebek / AFP via Getty Images
“Our air vehicles are admired around the world,” said Erdogan in January. “Turkish armed UAVs are changing the methods of war and have changed the trend of the war in Libya.” He later seized on data showing seven Turkish defense companies among the top 100 in the world, up from two in 2016.
Bayraktar also likes to get involved in the flag. When some Turks pointed out their privileged position and the use of some imported parts, including engines, by Baykar, he tweeted that the drones “are not for the groom”, but for the nation, and “will fly whether you like it or not!” The components of the planes, he said, are 93% manufactured in Turkey. Baykar did not respond to an email asking for comment.
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The intention is unmistakable, but so are the risks. Turkey’s interventionist foreign policy and the pursuit of elite military technology could leave Ankara in a transactional no-man’s-land.
The US sanctioned Turkey and blocked it from Lockheed Martin Corp’s F-35 jet program. for the purchase of a Russian missile system, an agreement that Turkey hoped to include technology transfer. British and Canadian companies have stopped supplying drone components since concerns have arisen about how and where the planes were being used.
Turkish engineers are struggling to develop domestic tank engines, as well as the experimental TF-X fighter after delays in a deal with Britain’s Rolls-Royce, but it is an expensive undertaking with no guarantee of initial success.
“Turkey is rapidly becoming a market leader and an emerging power in lethal drone technology,” he said. Raluca Csernatoni, visiting researcher at Carnegie Europe. “This is part of a broader and continuing effort to develop a self-sufficient defense industry and President Erdogan’s stated ambition to reduce Turkey’s dependence on foreign weapons systems. However, it is easier said than done, ”she said, citing the Canadian decision to step aside from cooperation.
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Erdogan controlled the influence of generals in defense procurement, taking direct control of the procurement agency and aligning it with companies close to the government. The change created jobs and boosted military exports, which reached $ 2 billion last year, led by armored vehicles and ships. In the drone market, Turkey remains a minor player compared to the USA, China and Israel.
In the past two decades, only the United Arab Emirates have risen further in the arms supplier table compiled by SIPRI, which surveys global arms spending. Turkey’s general spending on defense equipment increased sharply, but imports fell 59% from 2016 to 2020 compared to the previous five-year period. This includes suspended deliveries of F-35.
Turkish drones – Baykar has competition from Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. – also prevented a major advance by Russian-backed government forces in Syria last year.
It was the kind of operation that arouses pride in nationalist politicians and voters who supported the president.
A Turkish military convoy parked near the city of Batabu on the highway that connects Idlib to the Syrian border crossing Bab al-Hawa with Turkey on March 2, 2020.
Photographer: Aaref Watad / AFP via Getty Images
They bitterly remember the U.S. arms embargo imposed after Turkey captured the northern third of Cyprus in 1974, as well as the consecutive decisions in 2015 by the US and Germany to withdraw air defenses. The withdrawals, which occurred as Turkey and a US-led coalition were preparing for joint air strikes against the Islamic State, shocked Ankara, who saw them as a punishment for repressing Kurdish separatists who responded to the collapsing peace efforts attacks.
In once-friendly Western capitals, Turkey’s stock fell further as the war in Syria, migration, human rights and the aftermath of a failed coup in 2016 severed ties.
Turkish leaders are increasingly insisting that traditional allies no longer protect the country. The condemnation is behind defense cooperation attempts with countries like Russia and Pakistan, despite threats from U.S. sanctions that periodically overturned Turkish markets and contributed to an exchange rate crisis in 2018.
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Turkey asked Moscow to sell Su-35 fighter jet platforms so that local engineers could install Turkish-made avionics; and sought to co-produce warplanes and missiles with Pakistan, a connection that could also give Ankara access to China’s valuable war technology, according to people familiar with the discussions. None of the negotiations were successful, they said.
South Korea stepped in this year to supply engines for Turkey’s Altay battle tank, after political disputes hampered plans to supply them from Germany. But politics has been left out for other businesses: Saudi Arabia, a rival in the Middle East, has bought Turkish drones, which are cheaper than its main competitors.
Ankara says it wants to preserve ties established with the West, but disputes are building up.
He is exploring legal action to recover about $ 1.4 billion paid for the planned purchase of about 100 F-35s. And it is sparking fights with members of the European Union, even as it seeks to co-produce European-made air defenses.
An amphibious assault ship, the TCG Anadolu, is being transformed into an aircraft carrier and added to Turkey’s flotilla in the Aegean and Mediterranean seas, where tensions are increasing in territorial cracks with Greece and Cyprus. It will be equipped with helicopters and up to 50 state-of-the-art Bayraktar TB3 drones, which should be the first model equipped with Turkish engines.