Do I understand this right? You think Turkish Army was in a better condition before the "islamists"?
Do you mean this in terms of equipment, competence or potency?
TSK has always been quite a potent and feared force. After the war of independence it has proved itself as capable in every single engagement. It crushed Kurdish rebellions in the early republic era, its reputation arguably made it easier to regain Hatay, it took half of Cyprus with ease and launched many effective cross-border operations in the 90s.
It has always been both competent and potent.
Then came FETÖ, who silently creeped in and was BACKED by Erdoğan. This was thr first major setback. And now we have Erdoğan trying to get his dirty hands into the military to make sure that troops are loyal to him. Competence isn't important, loyalty is much more valuable to dictators, many examples of this around the world. Even the mighty Russian military has been reduced to utter shit because Putin favors loyalty over everything else. We need to be extremely wary of this.
Furthermore, whilst TSK was feared throughout prior decades, due to Erdoğan's strategy of appeasement and constant barking, no one really sees us as a threat anymore, despite the performance we seen back in 2020. A big part of this is Erdoğan's reluctance to launch an operation due to the risk of further destroying the economy.
If we're talking about equipment, TSK was generally up to date when it came to our fighter fleet. Now we're a generation behind and our neighbors, including Israel are building up a fleet of stealth fighters, whilst we're shopping for more 4th gen fighters.
We're still using M48s, M60s and naked leopards. A lot of our APCs are old, really we've mainly just added Kirpis into the inventory, whilst waiting for BMC to be able to produce new tanks and IFVs. Our troops have had outdated armor for years because Erdoğan wants to fill the pockets of his ally. So yeah, even on land, we're pretty behind in comparison to a lot of NATO members.
Our defence industry only restarted in the 1970s. By the 90s, we were producing Cobras, ballistic missiles, MLRS, etc. A lot of these entered the inventory rapidly.
Being in this region, with a constant threat of war, and TSK being so integral, the defence industry has progressed as it should. A lot of major projects we have now have been in the pipeline for decades.
Of course our defence industry is stronger now, did we really expect it to go backwards? It has been funded by OYAK, TSKGV, has constant feedback from the military and has the benefit of being backed the brainpower of the most educated nation in the middle east, maybe second to Israel. This is all under threat now, if Erdoğan gets his way we'll lose a lot of our advantages because all he cares about is loyalty and votes. We've seen thr brain drain, with a lot of our top talent being snapped up by USA and EU.
So to answer your question, TSK has gained some capabilities it previously lacked, but currently has a fleet of fighter jets that's not capable of taking on our advereries, is less feared to Erdoğan's fear of economic collapse, has probably taken some hits to competency because of Erdoğan's desire to keep the military loyal to him, instead of promoting staff due to competency. We've just modernized like most other militaries have, are you seriously going to compare our currently inventory to that of the 80s and 90s, no shit it's going to be better, technology has evolved. Yes we have some exciting programs ahead, yes we pioneered drone warfare, but our wings are clipped and if we're not careful we'll up like Russia. Personally, I don't see it happening, but we really do have Putin 2.0 and that's not a good thing.
I'm still very impressed with the progress of our defence industry, but Erdoğan and his tribe need to fucking go.