Where Does the Concept of "Nationality" in the Defense Industry Come From?

One of the most important and strategic sectors for a country is undoubtedly the defense industry. For this reason, the fifth generation "National Combat Fighter Aircraft" (MMU-TFX) KAAN, which broke new ground in Turkish aviation and opened the doors to a new history, is a 'Strategic Asset' that can provide great value or benefit to the Turkish nation. With this important move, Turkey has become the fourth country among the limited number of countries in the world, such as the USA, RF and PRC, that have the infrastructure and technology to produce a 5th generation combat aircraft. The US's F-22 Raptor and F-35, the RF's Sukhoi 57, have set sail to obtain superior features compared to the PRC's Chengdu J-20. The road is long, winding and complicated. All kinds of Byzantinistic intrigues on this path we have entered are considered ordinary events.

Another important feature of Turkey is that it is a country that has adopted democracy and the doctrine of living in peace on earth. It is not possible to say this for the other three countries with which we are competing and the five United Nations countries that have the same mind and have veto power and have adopted the doctrine of aggression. As stated clearly in the National Military Strategic Concept of the Republic of Turkey, with its structure based on international law, it has established its defense industry on the condition that it evaluates threats and threat perceptions against itself as a priority. What the other three producing countries with which we compete together have established is the 'War Industry', which sees people as guinea pigs and is far from humane. The industry they established is a direct "War Industry" aimed at creating conflict and selling weapons, tools, equipment, equipment and ammunition, encouraging war among societies and creating addiction.

Similarly, in the Ottoman Empire, one of the five great families that ruled the world, there was the "Ministry of War", "Ministry of War" and "Ministry of War". In the new State of Turkey, with the establishment of the Republic, the "Ministry of National Defense" and the "National Defense Industry" were established. Defending the country requires, first of all, being national, it must be so, the defense of the country cannot be transferred to another country, and this duty is and must be fulfilled by the children of the Turkish nation. This is the truth, it is an undeniable truth. The words "Deputy" and "Deputy", which were used with great care in the first years of the New Turkish State, are also a reflection of this approach. Representatives of the Republic of Turkey, in the current sense of Minister, are people who are elected by direct voting and are given the responsibility of doing this job, which is the representative feature of democracy; in short, they are civil servants, chargé d'affaires, and business leaders who work on behalf of the people.

In the USA, this is called Secretariat. By the way, the name of the Secretary of State in the USA is "Secretary of State". In democracies, there is no such concept as "Party Chairmanship", there are more or less "Party General Secretaries", the most famous of which is the "Communist Party General Secretary" of the PRC.

In Arab countries, "vizir" and "vizierate" are used more often. In the Ottoman Empire, in the beginning, each ministry had a separate name, namely "Başdefterdarlık", "Janissary Aghalığı", which was the Ministry of Finance. According to Fatih's law, the representative of his property was the "chief treasurer", and the supervisor of his subjects was the "vizier-i azam", the "grand vizier", that is, the prime minister. With the Europeanization process, the Ottoman intellectuals, who were eager to take over the West, roses and thorns, introduced the word "nazır" into "management and governance" as opposed to the word "ministre". As you know, the words "nazır" and "nezaret", meaning 'looker', came into the literature from the root "evil eye", which means to cast a glance. It is wrong.

With the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, domestic production efforts came to the fore instead of imports, and despite the 1929 Great Depression and economic crises, the Turkish National Defense Industry has made significant progress and has been able to reach its current stage after many periods of hesitation and stagnation. With the establishment of the Republic, 18 public or public-partnered enterprises and 3 private sector enterprises were established. 17 of these 18 enterprises were established outside Istanbul, thus, unlike the Ottoman Empire, industrial activities were intended to be shifted to Anatolia. Thus, a strategy was pursued for the development of regions outside the developed northwestern region of the State. Is it the right approach? Yes, it is the right approach. In the Ottoman Empire, where the transportation and communication problems could not be fully solved, the failure to distribute the industrial facilities established in the early period in a balanced manner was considered an important problem.

Another distinctive inference about this period is that businessmen such as entrepreneurs Şakir Zümre, Nuri Killigil and Nuri Demirağ established defense industry facilities as private enterprises. The reason for this is the support provided to trade, industry and banking, which were characteristic of the state in the first years of the Republic. The aim of management and governance is to establish a 'modern' economic structure and operate it widely. The nature of the supports initially shows that this is a structure that will encourage private entrepreneurship. In the first years of the Republic, it was observed that the field of private enterprise expanded in all segments of the economy. (one)

It should not be forgotten that the "domestic and national industry move" implemented today is a strategic initiative that was compulsorily implemented in the first years of the Republic and the Second World War. The need to create a national defense industry, which emerged with the pressures to ban opium cultivation by the USA, the Cyprus Peace Operation and the arms embargo imposed on Turkey as a result, is a "quest for a national path". Defense industry organizations established in this period, such as ASELSAN, HAVELSAN and ASPİLSAN, have been highlighted as the fruits of this search.

However, as a feature of that period, Turkey entered a process called the "Neoliberal model" with the "January 24 Decisions" and Turkey gradually shifted its development path from the perspective of industrialization, with the service sector integrated into the global economy through financial rent income, low value-added and It has embarked on the construction of a subcontracted industry based on relatively simplified technologies. The path taken is wrong. However, the situation has been different in the field of defense industry, and strong institutional and practical steps have begun to be taken to realize domestic and national production. In addition, the Turkish Land Forces Strengthening Foundation, the Turkish Naval Forces Strengthening Foundation, and the Turkish Air Forces Strengthening Foundation, which were established in the 1970s to meet the weapons, vehicles, equipment and equipment requirements of the Turkish Armed Forces, were combined under one roof. The "Turkish Armed Forces Strengthening Foundation", which includes organizations such as ASELSAN, HAVELSAN, İŞBİR, TUSAŞ, ROKETSAN and ASPİLSAN, has made significant contributions to the development of the defense industry.

The national defense industry, which was negatively affected by the instability in politics that started in the 1990s, the crises in the economy in 1994, 2001 and 2008, and the signing of the customs agreement regulating customs tariffs in accordance with EU criteria in 1995, achieved its main development with the "local and national" move after the tutelage was broken. has started to take rapid steps towards its realization. The first important step of these steps is the adoption of the "smart supply system", developed with the concept of joint production and subcontracting under the name of license. The most important step in production is consortium type partnership modelling. Consortium is a partnership established with the aim of achieving the capacity required for the job in question by combining the resources of its partners, which cannot be undertaken by a single organization. (2)

To make a long story short, in consortia, each partner undertakes a certain part of the work. An important distinguishing feature of the Turkish Defense Industry is the primary evaluation of the needs coming from the field, the melting of the country's defense concept and implementation doctrine and integration with the real concept-based requirements system. This situation is a secret key to the transition from import substitution to localism, from locality to nationality. This perspective has been adopted as a dynamic concept in all layers of the Turkish National Defense Industry.

A relative application of this expansion was clearly revealed during the reign of Mehmet the Conqueror. While Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror was destroying the obsolete Byzantium, he represented a very superior point in science, science and technology compared to Byzantium. For the first time in history, cannons were cast in series under the direction of Hungarian Master Urban. This was a technological revolution. During the rise of the Ottoman Empire, for example, at the beginning of the 16th century, the Ottoman Defense Industry, consisting of Tophane-i Amire, Cebehane-i Amire, Baruthane-i Amire and Tersane-i Amire, was perhaps the forerunner of a large military industry in early Europe. (one)

However, later on, the opposite situation was adopted as a political aspect, which simply made the defense industry fall behind. In this context, since the 17th century, the Ottoman Empire began to lag behind in the Navy and the arms industry, especially in the production of cannon, gunpowder and steel, as in all levels of the state, and became almost dependent on England. So much so that the majority of the iron cannons in the Ottoman castles, which were at the focal point of the defense system of that day, were British-made. It is regrettable to say that the Republic of Turkey was forced into a similar situation after entering NATO.

The use of new and national technologies in war is one of the most prominent factors identified with victory. Let's remember together, in terms of war technology, B.C. The Battle of Kadesh, fought in 1274, is the battle in which the most chariots were used in history. It took place between Egypt, under the rule of Pharaoh Ramses II, and Mesopotamia, under the command of the Hittite King Muvattelli. The Battle of Kadesh was a war fought by two of the greatest armies in history. The Hittite army, one of the largest armies in the world at that time, and the Egyptian army faced each other and this historical war took place. It is a well-known battle that took place on the banks of the Orantes River, near the city of Kadesh, which is located in today's Syrian territory. (3)

Let's say right away that Pharaoh's army won this war. From where? Because the Egyptian war chariots had iron wheels and there were two people in the chariot pulled by horses. The chariot pulled by the Mesopotamians had stone wheels and only one person could stand on it. This single person was both driving the car and shooting arrows. In other words, it appears that the Egyptian Army is technically much superior. So, to make a long story short, the iron wheel defeated the stone wheel in Kadesh. Thus, in the Battle of Kadesh, the side that was one step ahead in technology won and achieved victory.

Having superiority in technology is also extremely important in terms of "Warfare Principles". An undeniable principle from the principles of war will determine all of these and clearly reveals the situation. The one who establishes technological superiority when and where the enemy least expects wins the victory. The late Prime Minister, Mechanical Engineer Prof. Dr. Necmettin Erbakan's description on this subject is extremely important as follows:

“When we look at those cannons that adorn various parts of the city in Istanbul today, we see that great artistic wonder dating back 500 years. As someone who has specialized in this field, I would like to remind you that if we put out to tender in Turkey today the balls that Sultan Fatih had cast, we would not be able to find a company that could cast them without a hook inside. (4)

Yes, Dear Readers, real genuine industrialization is having factories to build factories. It is perhaps the primary prerequisite for getting rid of external dependency. For this, it is necessary to be able to produce advanced technology, which constitutes the real spirit of the industry, and to be able to continue research and development with the driving force of the synergy within itself. Moreover, more than that, it is necessary to think of the National Defense Industry around this idea, dear readers, under a concept-based needs system based on real needs.

Footnotes:

(1) Yasin Şehitoğlu ve Enes Kurt, “Türk Savunma Sanayi Tarihi: Dönemler ve Aktörler (1834 – 2020)” Ötüken Neşriyat, İstanbul, 2021, https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/2167320/Erişim Tarihi 03.03.2024/

(2) Rüknettin Kumkale, “Konsorsiyum nedir?”, Dünya Gazetesi, 09 Şubat 2016; https://www.dunya.com/kose-yazisi/konsorsiyum-nedir/27082/Erişim Tarihi 03.03.2024/

(3) Hürriyet Gazetesi, “Kadeş Savaşı Tarihi Ve Önemi - Kadeş Savaşı Tarafları, Nedenleri Ve Sonuçları Kısaca Bilgi”03 Mayıs  2021; https://www.hurriyet.com.tr/egitim/kades-savasi-tarihi-ve-onemi-kades-savasi-taraflari-nedenleri-ve-sonuclari-kisaca-bilgi-41802233/Erişim Tarihi 03.03.2024/

(4)Sinan Burhan, “Prof.Dr. Necmettin Erbakan’ın Son Söyleşim’ Siyonizm Hapishanesinde İsyan” İstanbul, 2024, s.84