Foreign Policy: Turkish arms make major inroads in US market PHOTO

Türkiye’s defence industry is steadily gaining global recognition through rising exports and expanded arms production, with Foreign Policy highlighting its growing presence in the US market - particularly through the Canik firearms brand, produced by leading manufacturer Samsun Yurt Savunma (SYS).

Leading that movement was Türkiye, which has held the position of the United States’ top firearms exporter since 2021. At the forefront of Turkish brands is Canik, a subsidiary of Samsun Yurt Savunma (SYS).

At the time of Jones’s death, the Canik pistol had gained popularity in the US market, aligning well with a trend among gun manufacturers and marketers to appeal to broader demographics—including women, youth, and Black consumers like Morgan and Jones. The Canik 9mm pistol, with its compact size, user-friendly trigger, and lightweight build, was well-suited for inexperienced users. Crucially, it was also highly affordable, typically retailing for under $400. 

“Türkiye kind of occupies this niche all on their own,” Iain Harrison, a marksman and editor in chief of Recoil magazine, told Foreign Policy.

While Turkish manufacturers’ price points compare with lower-quality guns from countries with less developed industries, “quality-wise, even despite the price, they’re right up there with the European guys.” Although overall US gun sales have declined since their 2020 peak and many of SYS’s competitors have seen shrinking numbers, SYS’s brands continue to grow, even surpassing their pre-pandemic performance. According to the company, it has the capacity to manufacture up to 460,000 9mm pistols annually—ranking it second only to Germany’s Sig Sauer, but at roughly half the retail cost. 

Turkish-made semi-automatic shotguns have also become dominant in the legal arms markets of several conflict zones. Defense consultant Miles Vining, who has studied small arms in the Middle East, noted that Turkish shotguns were “everywhere” in countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Myanmar, and Syria. For insurgents and criminal groups, he said, purchasing these firearms is an obvious choice due to their affordability, availability, and tactical features such as pistol grips and collapsible stocks. 

“They occupy a big part of these markets because oftentimes they’re some of the only legal firearms that civilians can have per the books,” Vining said. Authoritarian regimes not only enforce strict gun control domestically, but are also restricted by international arms embargoes that limit their ability to import weapons - except for shotguns, which are widely legal and often exempt from such bans. 

In 2022, after one of its new pistol models failed to meet US import criteria, Canik USA—a subsidiary of Türkiye’s SYS—chose to sidestep import restrictions by establishing its first US-based factory in Florida. The facility, which opened in December, began producing the previously barred Canik model and plans to expand into manufacturing heavy machine guns and medium-caliber cannons. Last year, SYS generated $190 million in revenue - over three times the highest level of US security assistance Türkiye ever received. 

That assistance was significantly scaled back in 2020, when Washington imposed sanctions and blocked arms exports in response to Ankara’s purchase of Russia’s S-400 missile defence system. Yet despite ongoing US defence sanctions, American gun consumers continue to indirectly support the growth of Turkish military manufacturing, including SYS’s production of cannons and turrets, as well as Sarsilmaz’s development of drones and autonomous combat systems.

By Naila Huseynova