At the first presidential summit of defense industries convened in Ankara on Dec. 12-13, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he believes an increased injection of the private sector into the defense industry through privatization is a key to success.

One week after this statement, a new decree was signed by Erdogan that includes Turkey's Tank and Pallet Factory in the country's northwestern province of Sakarya in the scope of a 25-year privatization program. The program aims at an efficacious use of resources in the national defense industry and at raising the operational efficiency of the factory.

The aspect of the decree that was debated most was that the privatization law says the factory is a military facility and not a state economic enterprise. Thus, this privatization has become the first where a company leases a military facility in Turkey.

The Tank and Pallet Factory, established in 1975 and operated as a military unit attached to the Land Forces Command, manufactured purely indigenous equipment such as howitzers, ammunition carriers, day-and-night binoculars and tracks for tanks and other military carriers. The factory was also modernizing Leopard 1, 2 and other tanks.