An Interesting Situation on the USS Gerald Ford Docked in Antalya/Opinion by Behcet Kaya

 

Something interesting happened while the USS Gerald Ford was recently docked in the Turkish port of Antalya.

U.S. Ambassador to Turkiye, Jeff Flake, invited Selcuk Bayraktar to join him on board.

Who is Selcuk Bayraktar? I would say he is the Elon Musk of Turkiye. Selcuk Bayraktar’s drones are well known throughout the world. Bayraktar TB2s have been sold to 31 nations. They are known for their stability, reliability, and accuracy. TB2s have rewritten conventional war strategy for the 21st century.

After graduating with a major in aeronautical engineering in Turkiye, Selcuk Bayraktar completed his master's at Georgia Tech in Atlanta and his PhD at MIT in Boston. He then returned to Turkiye to build military drones.

Overcoming many roadblocks, he and his brother, Haluk Bayraktar, formed Baykar Technology and their company has become the number one drone technology company in the world.

Their father, who has passed away, was a mechanical engineer himself and the main inspiration for the Baykar firm. May he rest in peace (mekani cennet olsun).

Along with high-ranking Turkish military generals and Air Land and Sea units Selcuk Bayraktar boarded a seaplane and landed on the USS Gerald Ford Carrier for his visit.

Earlier, the carrier was in Oslo Norway, followed by a stop in Hirvatistan in the Adriatic Sea, then Greece, and finally docked in Antalya, Turkiye. The carrier along with the Turkish TCG Anadolu and other war ships conducted military drills in the Mediterranean Sea.

I personally have mixed feelings about this invitation by the U.S. ambassador. The USS Gerald Ford is one of the most technologically advanced, most sophisticated, and the largest (100,000 tons) carrier in the world. Combine that with the most advanced fighter jets in the world.

Why did U.S. Ambassador Jeff Flake invite the most admired man in Turkey to visit the American carrier?

I offer several possibilities:

Number one- the positives: I hope the invitation was intended to start repairing the damaged U.S./Turkish relationship; an olive branch so to speak. Or, perhaps to help him in his dream to ultimately have his TB3 drones and his Kizil Elma drone fighter jet advance to the point of landing on the TCG Anadolu.

Number two- the negatives: I hope the invitation was not intended to threaten Turkiye about its plans to join the Russia/China orbit. Or to discourage Selcuk Bayraktar in further development by underhandedly implying ‘Hey, don’t go too far in developing new technologies before the U.S. does. You’re still new in the business.’

Selcuk Bayraktar’s dream is to be first in the world to have his drones and drone fighter jets take off and land on a drone carrier. That dream came about because the TCG Anadolu originally was set to carry the Joint Strike Force F-35B fighter jet, a jet that takes off vertically. However, since the U.S. expelled Turkiye from being in the international partnership, the Turkish government decided to convert the TCG Anadolu into a drone ship.

Since then, Israel and the U.S. have been working on developing a drone carrier and have even bragged that they will finish building the drone carrier before the Turks finish theirs.

In answer to this bragging, Selcuk Bayraktar, representing Baykar Technology said, “We shall see about that.” So, there is now a competition going on between Baykar Technology and the U.S./Israeli ship builders.

Unfortunately, I tend to believe that the second scenario is in fact what occurred during that visit. The U.S. is supposed to be a Turkish ally and Turkiye and the U.S. are both members of NATO, which means that, according to Article 5, if one country of NATO is attacked all other NATO members are supposed to protect one other.

But just recently the U.S. conducted a military drill with the notorious PKK on the Turkish/Syrian border. For years the U.S. has been training the PKK/YPG/PYD, in addition to supplying them with weapons.

Why? Their excuse is they are training the PKK to fight against another terror group known as DAESH. However, DAESH was originally formed by the CIA/Mossad in order to legitimize the PKK. Twisted, isn’t it?

In reality, these terror groups are all for dividing Turkiye and forming a proxy nation for greater Israel.

In conclusion it is my opinion that this invitation of Selcuk Bayraktar to visit the USS Gerald Ford Carrier was to both threaten and dissuade any further drone development.

We shall see if Selcuk Bayraktar was, in fact, intimidated. Or if he continues with his visionary plans.