With the cyber terrorist attacks against Lebanon, we have once again seen how important this is,' said President Tayyip Erdoğan three days ago: 'The value of our national technological movement and investments has been understood. We will continue our work until we reach the goal of a fully independent Turkey in the defence industry.

Before I start with these remarks, I would like to make one point. In recent years, the AKP government led by Erdoğan has made a noticeable change in foreign policy. It has abandoned the foreign policy strategy of "high tension" and confrontation with many countries at the same time, which went beyond the limits of Turkey's reality, and has retreated to a line of balance with the other influential powers of the West, which would at least make it possible to raise money from outside, especially to regain the trust of the USA.

Erdoğan's statement before leaving for the US to attend the UN General Assembly: "We have expressed our willingness to meet with Assad in order to normalise relations between Turkey and Syria. We are now waiting for an answer from the other side. We are ready for it' should be read in the context of the same policy.

But despite all this, the preference of the Turkish ruling class is to keep Turkey in a position that can 'spread' in proportion to its power within the global balances that are the stage for new dominance aspirations with various conflicting dynamics. Erdoğan's emphasis on investment in the defence industry and the fact that Turkey is in a race in the arms export rankings are indicative of this.

In this context, let us continue with some reminders. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's (SIPRI) report on global arms and military equipment sales, comparing the years 2019-2023 and 2014-2018, published in March this year, Turkey has become the 11th largest arms exporter in the world, increasing its arms exports by 106 percent between the periods compared in the report.

The US, which is engaged in military operations and occupations in almost every region of the world under the pretext of bringing 'peace and democracy', was in first place. Compared to the previous five-year period, the US increased its sales by 17 per cent and reached a global share of 42 per cent.

As it can be seen, the Turkish bourgeoisie, while talking about peace and democracy on the one hand, is determined to have a say in the race of 'war sellers' on the other hand.

Turkey has become the world's largest supplier of UAVs (Unmanned aerial vehicles), according to a report published last week. The Centre for a New American Security (CNAS) published a report on the global market for military UCAV-UAVs (Unmanned combat aerial vehicles). According to the report, authored by Molly Campbell, China, Turkey and the US have sold a total of 69 armed military drones to 40 different countries since 2018. Turkey accounted for 65 per cent of these sales, while China accounted for 26 per cent and the US for 8 per cent. In 2022, six new countries procured UAV-UCAVs, all of which were Bayraktar TB2s produced by Baykar.

The report also noted the performance of "Turkish UAV-UCAVs on the battlefields of Libya, Nagorno-Karabakh and Ukraine" (Anadolu Agency, 18 September 2024).

Another news item published a month ago read as follows: "The number of Turkish companies in the world's top 100 defence companies has risen to 5.

The number of Turkish companies in the US defence industry list 'Defense News Top 100' has increased to five. ASELSAN ranked 42nd among Turkish companies. TAI ranked 50th, Roketsan 71st, Machinery and Chemical Industries (MKE) 84th and ASFAT 94th. (Anadolu Agency, 6 August 2024)

In addition to these data, we should remember that Turkey has its largest overseas military base in Somalia, on the eastern tip of Africa, and that the Albayrak group of companies has profitable investments in this region.

The war between Russia and Ukraine, Israel's genocidal attacks on Palestine and, most recently, its attacks on Lebanon have also provided a bloody market for these weapons.

More than 40,000 people, mostly women and children, have been killed by these weapons in the Gaza Strip as a result of Israel's attacks that began in October last year. While someone is making money on this stage, the poor of the arms exporting countries are made to feel proud of the power of 'their own country's weapons'.