President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan delivered a speech at the IDEF’19, 14th International Defense Industry Fair in Istanbul.
"IDEF is the best place to witness the progress Turkey has made in the defense industry in the last 17 years," President Erdoğan said.
"The fact that the defense industry products manufactured in our country are globally recognized shows that we have been taking the right steps. We are, step by step, approaching our aim to have a say in all phases of the defense industry from design to production."
"There can be nothing more natural for us, as a country whose state tradition dates back over 2,200 years, to attach importance to the defense industry. If we have been able to maintain a strong presence in our geography for the last thousand years as the Seljuks, the Ottomans and the Republic of Turkey, we owe it to the effective defense infrastructure we have as well as other qualities of ours."
"Some assume Turkey’s history to be comprised of just a century and its magnitude limited to it. They analyze Turkey based on that perception. However, we are a country that built the strongest armies and navies of the world and that, solely as the Ottomans, established areas of dominance which reached 24 million square kilometers,” President Erdoğan said.
“Turkey will not accept any imposition in the area of defense”
President Erdoğan voiced his sorrow over the fact that those weapons, which have not been sold to Turkey, are given to a terrorist organization based in Syria, and noting that the weapons of terrorist organizations across the world lead back to certain places.
"Those, who, from thousands of miles away, manufacture threat perceptions and address that threat by using disproportionate force, insist on disregarding our legitimate concerns. Turkey will not accept any imposition in the area of defense just like it does not in the areas of politics, diplomacy, and economy,” he said.
“An f-35 project from which Turkey is excluded is doomed to completely fail”
"Throughout history, Turkey has abided by all its alliances and done its part," President Erdoğan underscored.
Recalling that Turkey first tried to meet its need for air defense systems through its allies, President Erdoğan said that when Turkey’s demands went unanswered or were subjected to conditions, they took different steps.
"Well, there is such a process behind the S-400 deal we reached with Russia," President Erdoğan said. He noted that Turkey is making rapid progress in producing its own air defense systems.
Pointing to the imposition and injustice Turkey faces with regard to the F-35s, President Erdoğan said: "We believe that those, who try to exclude us from a program of which we are project and production partner, still do not see where it will lead to."
"An F-35 project from which Turkey is excluded is doomed to completely fail. We have started to rapidly take the steps to produce our own national fighter jets. The majority of our air forces' fleets will be comprised of our national fighter jets. In this regard, we also focus on unmanned fighter jets, the technology of the future."
ILKHA