ЭВОЛЮЦИЯ ВОЕННО-ПРОМЫШЛЕННОГО КОМПЛЕКСА ТУРЦИИ

Abstract

The article considers a brief history of the development of the Turkish military-industrial sector. Attention is paid to its current state, defined as a major technological breakthrough in the development and creation of complex systems of various types of weapons on the territory of Turkey. The security issues faced by Ankara in the period following the “Arab Spring”, the increased attacks by terrorist organizations, the geopolitical uncertainty caused by the withdrawal of Americans from Iraq and Afghanistan, forced the Turkish authorities to reconsider their approaches to the internal security of the state, shifting the emphasis from threats emanating from Turkey itself to the challenges posed by its origin is outside the Turkish territory. Such a rapid shift in the focus of potential and real threats to Turkey from national borders to adjacent (and remote) territories of neighboring states required the application of efforts and resources significantly exceeding the previous ones. That became a reason for the rapid development of the Turkish militaryindustrial complex, in which Turkey’s membership in NATO played a major role, providing Ankara with the necessary technological solutions, without which the further modernization of national “defense” would not be so successful. Having gone beyond providing its armed forces with the modern logistical means, Ankara is gradually turning into one of the major exporters of military products whereas commercial arms exports are becoming one of Turkey’s foreign policy priorities.