Turkey’s presidential communications office has denied claims that ASELSAN, the country’s largest defense electronics company, will be sold or transferred to US investment giant BlackRock, calling the allegations “baseless” and “untrue.”
The denial came after Mahmut Arıkan, leader of the opposition Felicity Party (SP), claimed that BlackRock was interested in acquiring ASELSAN and that US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack had been tasked with facilitating the process.
Turkey’s Directorate of Communications’ Center for Combating Disinformation said in a statement on X on Friday that that there was no plan to sell or transfer ASELSAN, one of Turkey’s most important defense contractors, to a foreign company.
Bazı sosyal medya hesaplarında ve basın yayın mecralarında yer alan "ASELSAN’ın ABD menşeili bir şirkete satılacağına" dair iddialar tamamen asılsızdır ve gerçeği yansıtmamaktadır.
Türkiye’nin savunma sanayiindeki yerli ve milli gücünün en önemli sütunlarından biri olan ASELSAN… pic.twitter.com/cXXaldJbuX
— Dezenformasyonla Mücadele Merkezi (@dmmiletisim) July 3, 2026
“The sale or transfer of a national asset of strategic importance such as ASELSAN, one of the most important pillars of Turkey’s domestic and national strength in the defense industry, to a foreign company is out of the question,” the center said.
Arıkan had raised the claim in remarks to the Sözcü daily, asking whether the government planned to “gift” what he called a national asset to US President Donald Trump.
He linked the allegation to a March 27 meeting in İstanbul between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Laurence D. Fink, BlackRock’s chairman and CEO and an interim co-chair of the World Economic Forum, asking whether ASELSAN had been discussed.
Erdoğan received Fink at the Dolmabahçe Presidential Office in a closed-door meeting attended by Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar and WEF senior executive Alois Zwinggi.
“ASELSAN’s sale, privatization or transfer to a fund cannot be accepted even as a claim,” Arıkan said, adding that the company should not be treated as an ordinary commercial asset because of its role in Turkey’s defense industry.
The Odatv news website had also earlier reported, citing unnamed claims from Ankara political and economic circles, that BlackRock had shown an interest in Turkish strategic companies, including ASELSAN.
The report also claimed that Barrack, a billionaire investor and Trump ally, was playing a role in potential investment contacts involving Turkey. The report did not cite named officials or documents supporting the claims.
There has been no public disclosure on Turkey’s Public Disclosure Platform indicating any sale or takeover talks involving ASELSAN and BlackRock.
ASELSAN is majority-owned by the Turkish Armed Forces Foundation, which holds a 74.2 percent stake in the company, while the remaining 25.8 percent is publicly traded, according to the company’s shareholder information.
Founded in 1975 in the aftermath of a US arms embargo imposed on Turkey following its 1974 military intervention in Cyprus, ASELSAN develops military communications, radar, electronic warfare, air defense, electro-optical and other defense systems.
The claim comes amid renewed debate over foreign investment in Turkey’s strategic sectors and closer Ankara-Washington contacts under the Trump administration.
ASELSAN is also one of Turkey’s most valuable publicly traded companies, with its market value recently exceeding 2 trillion lira ($43 billion). In its 2025 annual report the company said its order backlog had reached $20.4 billion and that it had signed export contracts worth more than $2 billion that year.
Its strategic importance has also attracted attention from NATO as the alliance pushes members to expand weapons production and strengthen its defense technology base.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte visited ASELSAN’s technology base in Ankara on April 22 during a trip focused on Turkey’s role in the alliance, defense industry cooperation and preparations for the July NATO summit in Ankara.
Rutte later cited ASELSAN as an example of Turkey’s growing defense industry, saying young engineers at the company were helping drive what he called Turkey’s “defense industrial revolution.”
“This spring, I spoke with talented young engineers at ASELSAN, Turkey’s largest defense electronics company,” Rutte said. “They are driving Turkey’s defense industrial revolution, which will benefit every member of our Alliance.”
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which tracks global military spending and the arms industry, ranked ASELSAN 47th in its 2024 list of the world’s largest arms-producing and military services companies.
Defense News ranked the company 43rd in its 2025 Top 100 list.
ASELSAN’s rise reflects a wider boom in Turkey’s defense industry, which has expanded quickly in recent years as Ankara seeks to reduce dependence on foreign suppliers and turn Turkish-made systems into export products.