MÜSİAD & AMAC Sectoral Cooperation Meeting

9 November 2023

Distinguished Guests,

Esteemed representatives of the diplomatic missions and of the business world,

Ladies and Gentlemen.

And esteemed members of the press,

I greet you all with respect.

Welcome to the MÜSİAD & AMAC Sectoral Cooperation Meeting, held in cooperation between the Independent Industrialists and Businessmen Association and the Ankara Military Attachés Association; you have honoured us with your presence…

Distinguished guests,

MÜSİAD is an independent and virtuous business people's association that has embraced national and spiritual values, that has adopted morality and honesty as its principle, that embodies universal values such as the observance of rights and law, fair sharing and solidarity, and that gives prominence to contributing to social development and to mutual assistance.

MÜSİAD was founded in 1990 by 12 devoted and determined young entrepreneurs with the horizon of “High Morality, High Technology” and with the aim of becoming the domestic and national power of the Turkish business world.

MÜSİAD's vision is to be a civil society organization formed by people who do business virtuously, trusted throughout the world, a leader in production and innovation, setting the agenda and providing economic prosperity for its country and its nation.

In addition, we carry out our activities as an actor of humanitarian diplomacy through our social responsibility projects, and as an actor of commercial diplomacy through our international structure and our activities.

Esteemed guests,

MÜSİAD carries out all of its work and activities with national consciousness and awareness.

The MÜSİAD & AMAC Sectoral Cooperation Meeting, which has brought us together today, is also a reflection of our domestic and national goals.

In these days when we are marking the 100th Anniversary of our Republic, as the MÜSİAD community we would like to emphasize our belief in the power of being “ONE AND TOGETHER”.

We know this very well: all the achievements of our Republic have come about thanks to our being “ONE AND TOGETHER” as a country. Today, as we have for a hundred years, we believe in the importance of being “ONE AND TOGETHER”, and we are shaping our entire road map accordingly for the coming “Century of Türkiye”.

On this occasion, I would like once again to thank all our esteemed speakers and our distinguished guests wholeheartedly for their participation and their contributions.

Distinguished guests,

Türkiye is a country that uses international politics and diplomatic channels very aptly and very productively. This is because we have a tradition of statehood going back more than a thousand years and a deep-rooted tradition of diplomacy going back more than 500 years. Türkiye, which currently possesses the world's fifth strongest and most widespread diplomatic network, also nourishes this deep-rooted tradition with its international civil society capacity.

The defence industry and defence mechanisms, which are the reason for our gathering here today, are also vital in terms of international politics and the tradition of statehood. For in the face of an open threat of attack, defence must always be strong as a deterrent element.

Taking an effective role in the solution of problems in the international arena and becoming a state with a say on the global stage is possible only through possessing a strong defence industry.

Although the main purpose in the development of the defence industry appears to be military security, the impact of the industrialization process on the economy is also considerable. For the defence industry is a sector with very strong links to the other sectors within the country's economy. On the one hand the defence industry provides a resource for the intermediate and investment goods industries within manufacturing, while on the other hand it also enables the emergence and the development of new branches of industry.

The fact that the defence industry creates what is virtually a multiplier effect and influences many sectors at once also occupies a very important place in our development target, especially in recent years. As we advance in line with our “Century of Türkiye” goal, to which our esteemed President points at every opportunity, the great distance we have covered in the defence industry is the indication of this.

Distinguished guests,

Thanks to the steps taken and the policies pursued especially over the last 20 years, the needs of our security forces have begun to be met to a significant extent with national technologies and domestic resources. In this way, a high domestic content ratio of 80 percent has been achieved in the defence industry.

Major projects have been brought to life in the defence industry, such as domestic UAVs and armed UAVs, the ATAK attack helicopter, our national tank Altay, and the world's first armed-UAV vessel TCG Anadolu.

Defence industry trade, which stood at a level of only USD 248 million in 2002, rose to USD 4.4 billion as of 2022.

The total defence and aviation turnover, which was USD 1.1 billion in 2002, reached USD 12.2 billion in 2022. Similarly, whereas twenty years ago we had no company among the world's largest defence companies, today we have major firms such as ASELSAN and TUSAŞ that are among the top fifty.

While in 2002 only 62 defence projects with a total budget of 5.5 billion were being carried out in the defence industry, in 2023 850 projects with a total budget of USD 90 billion are under way. God willing, our major defence projects will continue without slowing down in the period ahead.

Distinguished guests,

War must always be the last resort and must never target the lives of innocent people. We must always be on the side of peace, of diplomacy and of solutions. The universal values of humanity, founded on benevolence and optimism, of course require this as well. Even war has its law. It is established by international conventions that under conditions of war, civilians and the persons and institutions serving civilians are never targeted. In this sense, the identification of the actors who commit war crimes and their being held to account before international courts is essential for the establishment of the global conscience and of peace.

In this context, as MÜSİAD we support Türkiye's continual expansion of its peace-building capacity and its call to international centres of power, saying “The World is Bigger than Five”, for the unjust structure within the United Nations Security Council to be changed in order to build a more just world. As MÜSİAD, we too give our support to the execution of Türkiye's enterprising and humanitarian foreign policy.

Furthermore, within the framework of the latest developments in Gaza, we hope that Türkiye and the other international actors will increase their ceasefire efforts, that a ceasefire will be established in Gaza as soon as possible and that humanitarian aid will urgently reach the region. We condemn Israel's indiscriminate attacks against civilians and the actors who remain silent in the face of this barbaric massacre, and we hope that a peace conference will be convened after the ceasefire that is to be declared, in order to establish a just and lasting peace in the region.

Developing our defence industry does not require us to violate the law of war or to stand by while civilians are targeted.

God Almighty commands as follows in our holy book, the Qur'an: “Whoever kills a soul (unjustly), it is as though he had killed all mankind. And whoever saves a soul, it is as though he had saved all mankind.” (Al-Ma'idah, 32)

An understanding that saves people's lives and takes a stance worthy of human dignity will strengthen our humanity even further.

As I conclude my remarks, I thank you very much for your participation and greet you all with respect and reverence.

May God protect you.

Mahmut Asmalı

President of MÜSİAD