Turkish entrepreneurs summit stresses importance of defense industry

By Melike Keskin

ANKARA (AA) - Government officials, business executives, and experts on Thursday discussed the importance of the defense industry at a summit held in the central Turkish city of Konya organized by the Entrepreneurial Businessmen's Association.

Celal Sami Tufekci, the deputy head of the Turkish Defense Industries Presidency, said Konya is a city that boasts a strong defense industry infrastructure, adding that there are hundreds of companies in the city working on defense and aviation.

"It has a significant share of (Turkey’s) defense and aviation exports," Tufekci said. "It is very important to bring together the dynamism of people with an entrepreneurial spirit and large companies' accumulation of knowledge.”

Adil Sezengoz of the Turkish missile manufacturer Roketsan said 79% of Turkish defense industry purchases come from local firms.

"Doing business in the defense industry is doing business for the world," said Bulent Isik, the CEO of Aselsan Konya Weapon Systems. "Because the basic principles in our defense industry are based on essential conditions that have validity worldwide."

​​​​​​​Osman Dur, the CEO of TR Motor, said Turkey has successful engineers with experience in international corporations, and that TR Motor, an aviation engine designer, managed to attract many of them.

*Writing by Ovunc Kutlu in Ankara