Through Hardship to the Stars: Turkey's National Space Program

Abstract

The launch of the first Turkish communications satellite at the end of the last century marked the beginning of Turkey's exploration of outer space. Noticeable acceleration of Turkish Republic's “cosmization” occurred with R.T. Erdogan's coming to power in 2014. The intensification of such processes has become a logical continuation of the unofficial “neo-Ottomanism” ideology focused on increasing Turkey's international authority in various fields that started much earlier. In order to study the aspects of Ankara's activities in this area, the article provides a comprehensive analysis of the key state and non-state space-oriented structures' work, as well as Turkey's strategy for achieving space independence.

The author scrutinizes Turkish state satellite program that is one of the most successful projects of the country. Special attention is paid to the Turkish Space Agency, its strategic documents and country's National Space Program. Moreover, the article examines the details of Ankara's international cooperation in the field of space technologies in particular with Russia and the United States as well as other actors and international space organizations.

The author concludes that modern Turkey is just beginning the path of its independent existence in space and still to a certain extent depends on foreign partners, both – in the context of the components' supplies and the lack of its own spaceports. In addition, Turkey's ambitious space plans seem to be difficult to implement due to the economic crisis, significant weakening of the Turkish lira and rather tight deadlines. At the same time, Russia can use arising opportunities to involve Ankara in its "orbit" - both literally and figuratively.