Türkiye has transformed into a key player in global defence production, breaking free from its historical dependence on foreign suppliers.The northern and southern divisions followed ethnic tensions in the 1960s that forced Turkish Cypriots to seek refuge in the north of the island. Ankara had intervened to protect the lives and properties of hundreds of thousands of Turks in Cyprus, where a Greek military junta was trying to exert complete control.
“This was a wake-up call,” says Veysel Kurt, Associate Professor at Istanbul Medeniyet University and co-author of 'The Development of the Turkish Defence Industry'. “The response not only shook Türkiye's confidence in the US but also revealed the need to reach the capacity to meet its own needs in the defence industry,” Kurt adds.
Several factors have driven Türkiye’s focus on defence, according to Kurt. “Political leadership, collaboration between the public and private sectors, and investment in R&D have all played major roles,” Kurt says. “But the most important factor is the decisiveness of the political leadership.”in the past two decades coincides with the challenges it has faced along its eastern borders and the wider region. It also happened at a time when its Western allies let it down.
“The failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016, and the US’s refusal to cooperate with Türkiye on addressing the FETO threat further solidified the country’s shift toward a more independent political trajectory.” “Its accession to NATO in 1952 established foreign actors as its primary defence suppliers, relegating Türkiye to the role of a consumer,” says Kurt. “This meant Ankara was spending a substantial chunk of its budget on buying weapons from other countries up till the 1990s”, he says.