Ethical evaluation of artificial intelligence in the field of internal security in Turkey

The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology has created profound transformations in global security and governance dynamics. This thesis examines the impact of AI on national security and internal defense strategies in the 21st century with a focus on ethical governance. The main objective is to systematically evaluate how Turkey integrates AI-based systems into its internal defense structure and to identify the emerging opportunities and risks in this process. The findings indicate that AI provides significant advantages such as speed in decision-making cycles, efficiency in resource allocation, and enhanced situational awareness, while also generating ethical risks in areas including bias, privacy, proportionality, and accountability. The research is based on evidence mapping and comparative framing methods, analyzing official documents, peer-reviewed publications, and institutional reports from the 2015–2025 period through triangulation. The findings are evaluated across dimensions such as autonomous systems, biometric identification, surveillance and video analytics, predictive analysis, decision-support systems, cyber defense, data governance, and transparency. Turkey's policies and practices are compared with the frameworks of the European Union (EU), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United Nations (UN), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), as well as with the approaches of the United States (USA), China, India, South Korea, and Japan. The results show that Turkey demonstrates a high level of alignment with international ethical standards, yet has room for improvement in enforcement, oversight, and standardization. The thesis recommends integrating tools such as meaningful human control, traceability, data cards, data minimization, and independent conformity assessment into institutional processes, providing an evidence-based and ethically grounded governance framework. Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Ethical Governance, Internal Security, International Comparison, Policy Analysis