From horses to drones: the transformation of the Turkish military

Abstract

Turkey has one of the strongest militaries not only in its immediate neighborhood but also in Europe and within NATO. In this paper the development of the Turkish military and the military complex is examined from a historical perspective beginning from the early republic to the current situation with the political and international developments which affected this development. The transformation of the Turkish army from an obsolete but large land army to a modern one with some leading technologies in fields such as drones and infantry weapons is divided into four periods based on important political turning points which caused deep changes within the Turkish military in return. Most of the views on political matters are however, reflecting the Turkish point of view among the public and politicians, and therefore might differ from the general point of view in other parts of the world. But it was necessary to mention them to better understand the intrinsic reasons for the changes that took place.