President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan highlighted the importance of strengthening the Turkish military's deterrence capabilities, saying that it is a necessity and not an option, as he attended an Aug. 30 Victory Day celebration in the capital Ankara on Wednesday.
"We know very well from our bitter experiences that there cannot be a strong Türkiye without a strong army. Increasing the deterrence of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) constitutes a necessity for our country rather than a choice," he said.
It is indispensable to have a strong, modern and disciplined army with high deterrence, he added.
"We have taken many historical steps that will strengthen our army. We literally wrote an epic in the field of defense industry," Erdogan said, adding that Türkiye has been elevated to the "top league" in terms of military capabilities.
"Hopefully, we will soon come to the point of selling air defense systems to those who refuse to give us air defense systems on unfounded excuses," the president said.
Touching on the Türkiye's indigenous fighter jet KAAN, Erdoğan said: "Hopefully, we will see our aircraft take off before the end of 2023."
KAAN was originally scheduled to fly with a Turkish engine in 2028, but the process ended faster than they expected, Kotil said.
While the KAAN project began in 2016, TAI was expected to deliver the fighter jets to the Turkish Air Forces Command by 2028.
The Turkish military's accomplishments are visible in northern Iraq and northern Syria, including Idlib, where it has conducted counterterrorism operations and stabilized the region. In Libya, Türkiye backed the internationally recognized government fighting against putschist Gen. Khalifa Haftar. Aided by Turkish military advisers, Libya's army inflicted heavy damage on Haftar's militias.
Turkish cross-border operations in northern Iraq have been targeting the PKK terror group, mostly through air-backed campaigns. As for northern Syria, Türkiye's military has prevented the formation of a "terrorist corridor" by the YPG/PKK and blocked its efforts to infiltrate regions liberated from terrorists.
In its more than 40-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the U.S., Britain and the European Union – has been responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.