Turkish Arms Exports Around the World are Booming

The Turkish arms industry is booming, and the country's drones are a real export hit. President Erdogan is proud of the development in the industry, and the army regularly tests new weapons abroad, Deutsche Welle reports.

Baykar, for example, produces the TB2 drone. Last fall, the Azerbaijani army used it in the war against Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh, and according to the military, this helped them quickly take over enemy territory. Only a few weeks later, the Armenian army, equipped with old Russian tanks and missiles, was forced to admit that it was withdrawing.

The head of the company, Haluk Bayraktar, whose brother Seljuk Bayraktar is President Erdogan's son-in-law, is proud to present the company's latest developments at Teknofest. For example, the new drone "Akunji". In an interview with the German public television ARD, Haluk Bayraktar praised the modern technology and high efficiency of this unmanned vehicle in combat conditions.

Pride of the Turkish arms industry

The Turkish people are filled with reservations about President Erdogan's domestic policies, opinion polls suggest his

The Justice and Development Party is currently unlikely to win a majority in parliament. But many Turks take pride in the army and its weapons, especially when they were created and manufactured in Turkey itself.

Many Turks are equally uncritical of Turkish military operations in Syria, Libya or Iraq, where Erdogan usually tests the latest military technology.

The military is giving feedback to the arms industry so that arms manufacturers can make them even more accurate and efficient. This cooperation, which many German companies could only envy, is already bearing good fruit.

Interest in...

Continue reading on: