Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz expressed his agreement with some of the criticisms regarding the Defense Industry Fund regulation postponed to 2025, stating that “The package will be reviewed considering valid criticisms. If necessary, it will be resubmitted to the discretion of our Parliament.”

Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz made a presentation yesterday at the TBMM Planning and Budget Commission regarding the 2025 Central Budget Proposal. Yılmaz answered questions from journalists after the presentation.

Yılmaz, responding to a question about whether the Law Proposal Amending Some Laws Regarding Some Innovations Related to the Defense Industry will come to the agenda in the new year, pointed out that work is being done to strengthen the Defense Industry Support Fund, but noted that there have been many debates during this process. Yılmaz expressed his agreement with some of the criticisms and his respect for these criticisms, saying: “Parliament is there for this, proposals are made, discussions take place, there are votes, and if necessary, you withdraw the proposal or transform it. This should not be seen as a weakness. Serious criticisms were put forward socially. Impact assessments were made a little hastily.

“It was decided that as the People’s Alliance, we will come together after the budget once again, have detailed discussions, and look at it line by line. The package will be reviewed considering valid criticisms. It will be resubmitted to the discretion of our Parliament depending on how the political will is formed that day. But it is currently postponed. We are focused on the budget now.”

“WE ARE ALLOCATING RESOURCES AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE TO DEFENSE INDUSTRY PROJECTS” Vice President Yılmaz noted that the number of projects in the defense industry sector has exceeded 1,000 and the sector has reached a size of over 15 billion dollars, indicating that this field has now become a significant economic sector.

Reminding that 5.5 billion dollars of exports were made last year, Yılmaz said that the estimates for this year are 6.6 billion dollars. Yılmaz made an assessment, “We are now selling products to countries that did not deliver them to us in time. But it is not enough.” Yılmaz stated that resources are allocated from the budget to projects including the Steel Dome Project that will protect Turkey’s airspace more strongly against external attacks as well as the national combat aircraft KAAN.