Baykar Chairman of the Board of Directors, Selçuk Bayraktar, made a statement against the false information that has been circulated about their company recently. Here, he clarified many points, from the source of company income to project financing.
Selçuk Bayraktar answered all the questions and corrected the misconceptions!
According to the post made by Selçuk Bayraktar on X, the majority of Baykar’s income comes from exports and the company finances all its projects with its own resources. In this context, there is no defense industry company with similar export success worldwide.
Baykar, which does not receive any cash grant support from the state, has financed all its projects with its own resources and its share in Turkey’s defense expenditures is less than 1 percent. It is also stated that it does not use cash incentives and directly contributes to the country through tax payments.
In the posts made by Selçuk Bayraktar, the following was said:
“It is our response to the institutionalized lies, slander and distortions that have been maliciously circulated about us for a long time. Where does Baykar’s income come from? 97.5% of the currently signed contracts of Baykar, the world’s largest UAV exporter, are export-based.
Baykar, which has carried out all its projects with its own resources since the beginning, has obtained 83% of all its income from exports since the beginning of the UAV R&D process in 2003. In this field, there is no similar defense industry organization in the world whose income comes from exports at such a high rate.
It’s hard to find anything like it, even in technology companies. There are few examples of such export success, even among global technology companies. Baykar competed with US, Israeli and Chinese companies in its export activities abroad and left them behind in the competition.
It has exported high technology to 34 countries so far. Baykar has only one field of activity, which is the national development and production of unmanned aerial vehicle technologies. As in the slander that they sold jet fuel, oil, gasoline, diesel etc. We have never had a fuel business like this.
Are Turkey’s defense resources transferred to Baykar?
Baykar and its partners have not received a single penny of cash grant support from the government since its establishment and have not used a single penny of bank loans since its establishment. We finance all our projects 100% with our own resources. We grow by investing what we earn from exports into our projects. The share of payments made to Baykar in Turkey’s defense and security expenditures is below 1%, as previously announced by the SSB.
70% of Turkey’s defense expenditures are given to state companies. In the defense industry, where there were only less than 100 companies 21 years ago, today nearly 3000 companies continue their activities with nearly 80 thousand personnel.
Does Baykar receive incentives from the government?
Investment incentive practices are carried out by the state in order to develop and support the Turkish industry. In the statistics published by the Ministry of Industry and Technology, it is stated that 86,897 investment incentive certificates have been issued since 2012.
These supports include VAT exemption, customs duty exemption, corporate tax reduction, etc. Non-cash support elements include interest or dividend support for investment loans, qualified personnel support, energy support and grant support. Baykar has never used cash incentives in its investments to date.
None of the cash elements such as interest or dividend support for investment loans, qualified personnel support, energy support, grant support were requested by Baykar and were not provided to Baykar. In addition, the investment location allocation and SSI premium supports provided in the support decision have not been used by Baykar to date.
All investments made by Baykar are covered from its own resources. The 600 million lira incentive, which is shown as if it is being transferred from the state to Baykar by certain perception agents, is actually the tax deduction right given to all investor companies, including foreign companies, on some items in return for the investment to be made by Baykar. Baykar paid 6.4 billion lira in taxes last year alone.
So far, it has invested many times more than the said 600 million lira. It currently employs thousands of personnel and is one of the world’s few high-tech companies that runs programs to train young engineer candidates.
Does Baykar receive orders directly from the government without competing?
Baykar was born thanks to competition. It has become one of the world’s leading companies in its sector with its competitive structure. Before Baykar, Türkiye was purchasing UAVs from Israel. Baykar competed with the Israeli company by producing UAVs and supplied much higher quality UAVs to Turkey at 1/10 the cost.
The first unmanned aerial vehicle to enter the inventory of the Republic of Turkey is the Bayraktar Mini UAV. Bayraktar Mini UAV entered the inventory after the competition with a competitive, national and original development model implemented for the first time by the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries in 2004. The project was carried out by the national initiative Baykar, which left all its competitors behind and came in first.
We have financed all our high-tech investments with our own resources earned from exports, without even receiving a single order guarantee. Likewise, we made all our investments with our own resources earned from exports. How can a company that exports to 34 countries and is the world’s largest UAV exporter, leaving behind companies from many countries in the tenders held during these processes, become the first in the world without competing?
Doesn’t Baykar pay taxes?
In 2023, Baykar directly contributed 12.2 billion TL to our country through taxes and donations. Baykar became one of the companies that paid the highest taxes in Turkey with 6.4 billion lira in 2023. In addition, the company partners (Selçuk Bayraktar and Haluk Bayraktar) became the tax record holder in 2021 and 2022. In 2023 (for 2022), we paid 800 million TL in income tax.
Does Baykar do these works alone?
Baykar currently produces these high-tech systems by working with hundreds of SME-scale companies. Baykar maintains a strong cooperation with our national companies to elevate the ecosystem it has created around itself. Baykar’s export success is also the export success of many unknown small and medium-sized companies in Turkey.
The smart ammunition of the UCAVs exported by Baykar is produced by the state-owned Turkish Armed Forces (TSKGV) company Roketsan. Again, electro-optical camera systems were developed by another Turkish Armed Forces company, Aselsan.
State companies are not Baykar’s competitors, but solution partners it works with. Thanks to the achieved nationalization vision and this synergy focused on the National Technology Move, the Turkish defense industry is breaking export records one after another. More importantly, Turkish companies are becoming the main actors in such a strategic area.
Does Baykar have social responsibility projects?
All the foundations we have established do not accept aid, donations or grants from anyone other than their founders. This is our basic principle and even our red line. We establish these foundations to contribute to our country and our youth. T3 Foundation gives Özdemir Bayraktar scholarships to 5 thousand students every month.
It organizes the world’s largest technology festival, TEKNOFEST. 140 stakeholders support TEKNOFEST, which is the most important meeting point of the National Technology Move. Baykar alone covers half of the financial burden of this giant organization, as stated by Özdemir Bayraktar, who devoted his life to the cause of the National Technology Move.
The Life Health Foundation supports the research of scientists doing research in fields such as oncology, genetics, rare diseases and psychiatry. We carry out all of these works for our people by supporting them with our material and moral savings.