President Recep Tayyip ERDOĞAN attended the signing ceremony of the Türksat 6A Communication Satellite Project, Turkey's first indigenous communication satellite, at the Turkish Industrial Transfer and Administration Institute (TÜSSİDE) located at the Gebze TÜBİTAK campus. Türksat General Manager Ensar GÜL, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications Feridun BİLGİN and TÜBİTAK President Yücel ALTUNBAŞAK signed the project.

Türksat 6A Communication Satellite, which has a project duration of 5 years, will be completed in 2019 and is planned to be sent into space in 2020. With the project, it is aimed to develop the communication satellites that Turkey has had until now through foreign procurement to the maximum extent with domestic facilities, to bring satellite design and production technologies to our country and to keep national resources within the country. With the project, the strategically important military satellite communication needs, which have been met by Türksat A.Ş., will be produced with domestic resources.

"Reflections of the Growing, Strengthening, Developing New Turkey"

Before the ceremony, Mr. Erdoğan said that they had experienced a great pride by opening the TÜPRAŞ Transformation Facility, which was completed at a cost of 3 billion dollars, the largest industrial investment ever made in Turkey with a single item, and that they were proud of this project, and added: "We are observing the reflections and pride tables of the growing, strengthening and developing new Turkey together."

Erdoğan reminded that in January this year, they took delivery of the TÜRKSAT 4A Satellite, the construction of which was completed in Japan, and that the satellite was successfully launched from the Baikonur Spaceport in Kazakhstan on February 15. Stating that Göktürk 2, the first reconnaissance satellite with all of its software and 80 percent of its hardware being domestic, was sent into space from China in 2012, Erdoğan emphasized that RASAT, the first earth observation satellite designed and manufactured in Turkey, was placed into orbit in 2011.

Pointing out that the TÜRKSAT 6A satellite, which has been launched, is a much different and advanced project than these satellites, Erdoğan said: "We are proud of realizing 4 important projects during our government. The subsystems, ground station and software to be used in our TÜRKSAT 6A satellite, which will undertake both commercial and military missions, will be realized entirely with national capabilities. The subsystems to be developed within the scope of this project will also form the infrastructure of the national communication satellites to be produced later on. Therefore, this project is extremely important for us not only for the service it will provide, but also for its strategic nature. These are the signs of a leap and self-confidence. I sincerely believe that Turkey will be able to send its own satellites into space in the future and will have such opportunities. Today, Turkey is turning dreams into reality. God willing, in the near future, it will definitely succeed in realizing the unimaginable."

"The future will be much different for Turkey, for our nation"

Stating that they are in the struggle to improve research and development activities and to pave the way to knowledge, Erdoğan said, "With the investments we have made in education, especially vocational education, science, research and R&D, Turkey has started to progress in a very different lane. We have taken steps that could not be taken for many years and were postponed for many years, especially in these meetings of the High Council of Science and Technology, which we hold every 6 months under the coordination of TÜBİTAK. In all these studies, where were we, where have we been, where will we go? We have always planned all these, and from a period when the state almost did not allocate any money for R&D activities, we are now close to 1 percent of the budget. In fact, our target is 2 percent. Now 2 percent is no longer enough, maybe this will have to be increased to 3 percent. If we achieve this, with the private sector taking part in R&D investments - and the private sector has started to play a role in this field - I believe that the future will be much different for Turkey and our nation. We have taken many issues, especially defense industry projects, under our personal auspices and ensured that progress is made rapidly."

Emphasizing that Turkey has come a long way in the field of science and technology, President Erdoğan said: "When we look back, we see that there is a very significant difference between where we started and where we are now. For example, in 2002, there were only 2 technoparks in our country, which may seem strange. Today, we have 59 technoparks, 41 of which are active. This is very important in terms of showing where we have come from. In these technoparks, 3 thousand companies with 30 thousand employees research, produce and export 1 billion 700 million dollars a year. The informatics valley that we are establishing right next to us means that a new phase will hopefully begin in Turkey. This is also very important. We are building a very proud picture here in Turkey, an IT valley that will be a point of reference in the world. The tremendous increases in trademark and patent applications indicate that our country is moving in the right direction in this regard. We are hopefully transforming TÜBİTAK into an innovative and guiding institution in the field of science and technology."

Stating that the institutes and research centers operating under TÜBİTAK have made them proud with their admirable achievements, Erdoğan said that the private sector has also reached an important level in this regard.

Support for Private Sector R&D Activities

Emphasizing that in the past 12 years, the support provided to the research and development activities of the private sector through TÜBİTAK alone amounted to 4.5 billion liras, Erdoğan said, "I would like to emphasize one point in particular here. For 12 years, while serving as prime minister, we have been very diligent and sensitive to increase science, technology and especially research and development activities in Turkey. We restructured, encouraged and strongly supported TÜBİTAK with such a goal and such a sensitivity."

President Erdoğan stated that despite all their good intentions and sincere efforts, they have seen that some people who have settled inside TÜBİTAK have started to rot the institution from within and carry it to different purposes, and said, "Imagine, you call it science, you call it research and development, but someone is infiltrating the institution like a cancer cell. They are struggling to undermine your sincere efforts. Such a network of betrayal is settling inside TÜBİTAK that it uses its time and knowledge not for its homeland, nation and flag, but for treason. They carry out nefarious activities there, not for science and technology, but, for example, to eavesdrop on the encrypted phones of high-ranking state officials. If my phone, the encrypted phone given to me, is bugged by those who gave me this phone, I can never show a different approach to them. Unfortunately, the biggest evidence of how we are being stabbed in the back is these types in TÜBİTAK. When they hit you from the other side, you say, 'He hit you like a man', but when they hit you from behind, it is a treacherous, dastardly hit. We need to see this."

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, "The traitors infiltrated into TÜBİTAK were unfortunately protected by the hashishis infiltrated into the judiciary. Praise God, now TUBITAK is being cleansed of them. I am not saying that it is completely cleaned, I am in the hope that it has been or will be completely cleaned."

Turkey Can Build Its Own Satellite

Ensar Gül, General Manager of TÜRKSAT AŞ, gave a briefing about TÜRKSAT 6A before the signing ceremony. He said that the cost of the TÜRKSAT 6A satellite is approximately 550 million liras, of which 150 million liras will be covered by TÜBİTAK and the rest by the Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications.
Pointing out that the satellite would have been cheaper if it had been purchased, but that the costs were a bit higher due to the R&D involved, Gül said, "But in the end, we will have our own satellite platform and we will use it in future satellites. This is why we are paying the extra cost," he said.
Emphasizing that when TÜRKSAT 6A is launched into space, Turkey will be among the 10 countries capable of building its own communication satellite, Gül said that it is important not only to build the satellite but also to launch it.

Establishment of Turkish Space Agency

Ensar Gül noted that the Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications is preparing a draft law on the "Turkish Space Agency Law", and that this space agency will coordinate and manage Turkey's space-related projects.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan inspected the TÜBİTAK Marmara Research Center after the ceremony.