Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country was forced to develop its defence industry due to the events in Cyprus in 1974. At the session on the defense industry, the Turkish President said that “our bad neighbor made producers”. He essentially said that the US arms embargo on Ankara in 1974 led Ankara to develop its defence industry.

The Turkish president said that 15 years ago, when the AKP took over power, there was no such structure. He stressed that if they stayed on the same spot today they could not be able to do the “Olive Branch” operation in Syria, nor the “Shield of Euphrates” operation in Syria. “We did these operations with our own capabilities”, Tayyip Erdogan said. “They always told us that the Congress does not give permission. This is what we have experienced with Cyprus, and after Cyprus we won ASELSAN (Turkey’s Turkish defense industry). We have now started exporting. Countries that are not strong in defence technology cannot face their future safely and have expressed his conviction that both the public and the private sector will work to help make Turkey a world-wide player.

The Turkish president also announced the name of the new multi-purpose helicopter manufactured by Turkey, the T625