The Ottoman leader wants to extend the influence of his communications network to Latin America, the United States and Australia

Erdogan allies with tycoon Elon Musk to spread Turkey's influence around the world

photo_camera PHOTO/Murat Cetinmuhurda-Anadolu - US billionaire businessman Elon Musk has an agreement with Erdogan to put the new Turkish communications satellites into orbit

Turkey has been engaged in an ambitious project of expansion in all areas since Recep Tayyip Erdogan was elected Prime Minister of the country in March 2003, a process that has accelerated considerably since he became President of the Republic in August 2014.  

Erdogan's crown jewel in extending the scope of his influence worldwide is Türksat, the Turkish state-owned civil and military satellite communications company, whose Türksat 5A platform was the first object placed in space in 2021 by the United States, despite the political and commercial tensions between Washington and Ankara. 

With the launching of Türksat 5A into orbit, Ankara is embarking on an offensive to extend the dissemination of its culture to the five continents through its famous audiovisual products. The launch took place in the early hours of January 8 from the base at Cape Canaveral, on the Atlantic coast of the state of Florida, and was carried out by a North American Falcon 9 rocket from the company SpaceX, led by billionaire Elon Musk. 

Desde su posición orbital 31º Este a 36.000 kilómetros de altura, los planes de Türksat son ampliar la oferta sobre Europa, Asia y África y acceder a un mayor mercado potencial

The alliance between Elon Musk - founder of the Paypal payment system and the Tesla electric car company - and Recep Tayyip Erdogan was sealed in early November 2017. The entrepreneur travelled to the Turkish capital to meet with Ottoman President and then Ministers of Science, Industry and Technology, Faruk Ozlu, and Transport and Communications, Ahmet Arslan. His visit also served to finalise the details of the launch contract with Türksat's Vice President and Commercial Director, Hasan Hüseyin Ertok. 

One of the main scenarios of the present and future cultural and industrial battle identified by the Ottoman Government and Türksat is communications services, which are going to generate a very significant growth in demand on the ground, but which will be much more accentuated in the aeronautical and maritime framework.

El Türksat 5A es un satélite de quinta generación en cuya fabricación la empresa española Airbus CRISA ha aportado gran parte de la electrónica del ordenador central y del sistema de propulsión eléctrica
He will compete with Hispasat for the Latin American market

The main role of the new satellite is to increase the supply of telephone, data, internet, television and radio services over virtually all of Europe and North African countries. Of course, it will also cover Turkey, whose population now exceeds 83 million inhabitants-almost twice that of Spain-as well as Asia and the Middle East, particularly Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Ukraine, nations with which the Euro-Asian country has land or sea borders. 

But that is not all. The recently launched Türksat 5A will be followed by 5B, also manufactured by Airbus and which, in the middle of this year, will also travel on an Elon Musk Falcon 9 rocket. It will offer internet, e-mail, WhatsApp, YouTube and Netflix from the 42nd East orbital position. By 2022, Türksat 6A, the first nationally produced communications satellite, is scheduled to come to life at the Spacecraft Assembly, Integration and Test (AIT) Center in capital Ankara.  

Los satélites de Türksat proporcionan las comunicaciones seguras de las Fuerzas Armadas turcas, en especial en los diferentes escenarios de conflicto en que están inmersas

All of them are designed for civil and military communications as they are equipped with transponders in X, Ka and Ku-bands. When they are operational, Türksat plans to significantly reduce prices so that its commercial offer of audiovisual, voice, data and Internet content will be more competitive and allow it to multiply its clientele on a global scale.  

The plans of Erdogan's and Türksat's governments involve obtaining government authorisations to download the signals from their new satellites not only over the countries of Europe, Asia and Africa, but also over Western Australia, Eastern North America and the Latin American nations. This will enable it to gain access to a potential market of over three billion people in more than a hundred nations, which accounts for around 90 percent of the world's population.

Should Türksat obtain the necessary rights for the uplinking of content and communications over America, the Turkish operator will become serious and direct competition to the Spanish operator Hispasat, which has its large market in South America - particularly in Brazil - and in the United States and has seven communication satellites in service and another one being manufactured by Thales Alenia Space. 

Compañía estatal turca de comunicaciones civiles y militares vía satélite fundada en diciembre de 1990, Türksat está presente en todos los foros y eventos del mercado de las comunicaciones vía satélite
With French, British and Spanish technology

Türksat 5A is Türksat's seventh invention, but the first to reach space on board an American launcher, and the six previous ones were launched by European Ariane 4 and 5 rockets and by Russian Proton. The fifth-generation satellite, equipped with an advanced electric propulsion system that extends its orbital life to over 15 years, was built by Airbus Space Systems at its factories in Toulouse (France) and Stevenage (Britain). 

The Spanish company Airbus CRISA has made a key contribution to its production. Based in Tres Cantos (Madrid), CRISA has supplied the electronics of the central computer and the communications load, the protection equipment of the power lines and a large part of the electronics of the advanced electric propulsion system, which extends the life of the satellite in orbit to more than 15 years. 

El Türksat 5A encerrado en la cofia de un lanzador norteamericano Falcón 9, para convertirse en el primer objeto que ha volado al espacio en 2021

At present, Türksat 5A is heading towards its geostationary orbital position 31º East at an altitude of 36,000 kilometres, from where it will move in synchrony with our planet and will always remain over the same area of the earth's surface. There, it will join the three satellites that Türksat has in service: 3A (launched in June 2008), 4A (February 2014) and 4B (October 2015). The latter two cover the secret communications of the Ankara government, its armed forces, the country's official institutions and organisations and its strategic industries, both oil and defence.

Erdogan's interest in space is demonstrated by the creation of the Turkish Space Agency (TUA) in December 2018 and the announcement that at the end of 2020 it would unveil the National Space Programme for the period 2021-2030. But the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has prevented it from fulfilling its last wish. However, the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure run by Adil Karaismailoğlu has reached cooperation agreements with more than fifteen countries, including Russia, Japan, China, India, Pakistan and Azerbaijan, and has announced that Turkish industry is already working on about 30 space projects.   

La puesta en órbita del satélite turco ha tenido lugar en la madrugada de este 8 de enero mediante un lanzador Falcón 9 que ha despegado desde la base de Cabo Cañaveral, en la costa atlántica del estado de Florida

Turkey's effective presence in space began in January 1994 in the worst possible way. The Türksat 1A communications satellite was destroyed by a failure of the European Ariane 4 launcher which was carrying it into space from French Guiana. Fortunately, in August of the same year another Ariane 4 rocket succeeded in placing its twin 1B correctly in orbit, followed by Türksat 1C (launched in July 1996) and 2A (January 2001), all of which are now inactive. 

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