The first panel of the Defence Industry Summit, organized under the auspices of the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey, was held under the title "Defence Industry in the Entrepreneurship-Investment-Export Chain," chaired by Prof. Dr. Abdullah Atalar, Rector of Bilkent University. Speakers at the panel included Orhan Aydın, Chairman of the Board of Directors of OSTİM; Nurettin Özdebir, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Ankara Chamber of Industry; Zeynep Bodur Okyay, President of the Assembly of the Istanbul Chamber of Industry; and Lieutenant General İsmail Güneykaya, Chief of Staff of the Air Force Command.
OSTİM Chairman Orhan Aydın, in his speech, pointed out that the war continues not only in the field of defense, but also in industry, technology, and production.
An example for Türkiye
"We fell into the trap of the free market economy," said Aydın, continuing: "They said, 'If you have money, you can buy whatever you want from wherever you want.' 'There's no need to do these things. The state shouldn't deal with these matters.' This mindset still persists in the bureaucracy. Unfortunately, I want to emphasize that our bureaucracy, contrary to what our President said, prefers to import products from abroad instead of buying products made in Turkey. We haven't fully returned to the concept of producing our needs with our own resources."
Aydın noted that the practices of the Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB) serve as an example for Turkey, saying, “I wholeheartedly congratulate the SSB. Because the SSB has fulfilled the most important mission in Turkey. We were able to produce the legendary products we see here. We faced an embargo, but we persevered, we said we could do it, we set out to do it, and we did. The SSB has created a very good ecosystem. It has developed its ecosystem to the point where it can come to SMEs in OSTİM and teach them what to do and how to do it.”
Aydın, questioning why the successes in the defense industry sector could not be achieved in other sectors, warned, “Why couldn't we build wind turbines? Why couldn't we develop rail systems? Why can't we build our own hydroelectric power plants? Why can't we design and build a thermal power plant? Because we abandoned design, we abandoned our capabilities. Now we have become buyers. A foreign company comes and dictates its specifications to us. We have become experts in purchasing.”
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