The effects of unmanned aerial vehicles on the determination of Türkiye's security concept

This study aimed to reveal the importance of armed and unarmed Unmanned (combat) Aerial Vehicles (UCAV and UAV), one of the new century's developing military technology products. In determining this aim, the successful results obtained by UCAV-UAV in the fight against terrorism, in Syria Operations (Euphrates Shield, Olive Branch, Peace Spring and Spring Shield Operations), in the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas, in the Libyan Civil War, in the Second Karabakh War and the Ukraine War, were effective. In this context, the research topic of the thesis is the examination of Türkiye's security concept from the perspective of Neorealism on power and security. In the study, what kind of process is followed to meet the need determined within the scope of the security concept has been examined, and within the scope of the new security concept, how UCAV-UAVs are used has been evaluated from an offensive neorealist point of view. Accordingly, it is claimed that the military technology developed by Türkiye to ensure its security in the new century also affects its foreign policy. Since Türkiye is geographically located in many conflict areas, it has to keep its military capacity at a high level based on power and security. As a result of the examination carried out within the scope of the study, it has been determined that Türkiye primarily wanted to procure technological military vehicles such as UCAV-UAV through its allies for military capacity increase. However, this need could not be met by Türkiye's allies due to various military, political and economic reasons. For this reason, Türkiye had to meet this need with its internal resources and achieved successful results. Ultimately, Türkiye's ability to increase its military capacity, especially in UCAV-UAV technology, with its own means, has led to a significant change in the security concept, and it has been the main finding obtained within the scope of this study that the new concept can be evaluated from an offensive neorealist point of view.