Selçuk Bayraktar, Chairman of the Board of BAYKAR, announced that BAYKAR generates 90% of its revenues from exports and that its aerial vehicles operate in 37 countries, adding that the state has initiated efforts to establish a space station in Somalia.
The Take Off Startup Summit, held under the roof of TEKNOFEST at the Istanbul Expo Center and organised under the leadership of the T3 Foundation, the Ministry of Industry and Technology, and the Presidency Investment and Finance Office, featured presentations focused on local and national production as well as speeches from key figures shaping the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The programme was attended by BAYKAR Chairman Selçuk Bayraktar, Trendyol Go CEO Merve Başçı, and many entrepreneurial business leaders.
In his speech, Bayraktar made significant remarks on both BAYKAR’s development process and Türkiye’s strategic technology vision.
“Today, BAYKAR is the world’s largest unmanned aerial vehicle company”
Touching on the transformation from past to present, Bayraktar offered the following assessment of BAYKAR’s global position:
“If we were to go back 20 years, it would have been very difficult to predict where BAYKAR stands today. BAYKAR is now the world’s largest unmanned aerial vehicle company. It is an organisation that generates 90% of its revenues from exports. Its aerial vehicles operate in 37 countries. BAYKAR holds 60% of the global export market. Over the last 3–4 years, we have reached approximately 2 billion dollars in export revenue; we have become a large family of 8,000 people working with advanced technology.”
“We have never fallen short of any promise we made”
Recalling key milestones in Türkiye’s progress in the UAV field, Bayraktar said:
“The foreign UAVs used in Türkiye could not perform automatic take-off and landing. We flew our first aircraft in 2009. In 2014, Bayraktar TB2 became our first UAV with ROKETSAN munitions. The first firing took place in 2015. In 2019, the 6-ton Akıncı took off. We advanced from 6 kilograms to 6 tons in just 15 years.”
“Global positioning systems are critical for independence”
Issuing a warning regarding positioning technologies, Bayraktar stated:
“Global positioning systems are extremely critical for your independence. These systems can be jammed and deceived. Today, it is possible for a vehicle or aircraft to display a completely different location, and this is something that is currently happening.”
“Türkiye will have a space station in Somalia”
One of Bayraktar’s most striking statements concerned Türkiye’s space vision:
“Türkiye will have a space station in Somalia, a country that is part of our fraternal geography. Its construction has been initiated by the state. In the future, we aim to use our own launch vehicles there.”
“We now build complex machines in Türkiye”
Emphasising the strengthening of Türkiye’s advanced manufacturing capability, Bayraktar said:
“We build complex machines in Türkiye — car engines, aircraft engines, jet engines… Developing these is now possible in our country.”
The programme concluded with a group photo session and award presentations attended by entrepreneurs and business leaders.
