BMC wasn't seized by the government. BMC went bankrupt and the state saved the company from completely vanishing. Cukurova holding gave some of its assets (inlcuding BMC) to TMSF in order to settle its debts. TMSF opened a tender to sell BMC and eventually Ethem Sancak was the winner of the tender, he was the only participant iirc. The state intervened on BMC because it is a strategic company for our country. BMC had many employees who couldn't get paid for months, so eventually Cukurova holding and TMSF came to an agreement and BMC was saved. Otokar, FNSS and many more companies hold strategic value. Even Durmazlar, a company that makes trams and no defence products (afaik) is a strategic company for the country.
RMK Marine tender (which I was upset about as well by the way, because of potential delays in the Milgem project) was cancelled because one of the other shipyards filed a complaint. Then the government investigated it and eventually cancelled it. The amount of Milgems to be purchased changed as well so the whole roadmap for the Milgem project changed. The original tender included 6 Milgem's, which would've made 8 Ada class Milgem's in total, but plans have changed in the mean time and they left it at 4 Ada class Milgems. 2 Milgems were already developed or in development at Istanbul shipyard. Source:
https://turkishnavy.net/2013/08/27/troubled-waters-for-the-milgem-project/
That only leaves 2 more ADA class ships to be developed with the new roadmap, it is probable that SSB didn't deem it necessary to open a tender for only 2 ADA class ships and opted to have them built as Istanbul Shipyard. The current Milgem's in development are the bigger I-class Milgems. I do hope they will delegate the shipbuilding to other shipyards though, so that the know how will spread to other shipyards and they in turn can innovate on that know-how.
The Altay tender went as follows, Otokar had the right to give an exclusive bid to Milgem regarding serial production. SSB declined Otokar's offer and decided to open a tender in which they invited Otokar, BMC and FNSS. Eventually BMC won the tender, reportedly BMC gave the lowest bid of 3.5 million per tank, while it's nearest competitor offered around 7 million. By the way, SSB doesn't need to remake tenders until their favorite company wins. SSB isn't obligated to choose the lowest bidder, there are many other factors involved with regards to choosing a sootable company. On top of that, SSB isn't obligated to open a tender process at all. If BMC was favoritized over the other companies it would've just given the project to a company without the process of going through a tender. Back in 2007, the tender for the research & development of Altay went to Otokar, eventhough FNSS was the more suitable company at the time (looking from the outside), but we don't know what the executives know and decided to go with Otokar and it was a good decision by them because Otokar delivered.
The reason these discussions drag on so needlessly and there being so much mudslinging, whether its on Turkish media, this forum or back on PKD forum, is because the majority of us have partisan opinions. We tend to believe anything that is inline with our confirmation biases. So we believe there is foul play and corruption involved because we want to believe it, because of our love or hate for certian political parties, leaders and/or ideologies. In other words, if we read something negative about a poltician we hate we tend to believe it, but if we read something positive about a politician we hate, we dismiss it as being false or a lie. Same goes the otherway around.
That is SSB's strategy, being less dependent of other countries. BMC's strategy is, according to my own observations, is to achieve more market share and competeby offering the more cost effective options. This is something that Otokar and FNSS can't compete in, it seems. I think BMC gets this advantage from the Qatar'i investments. BMC is willing to make less profits, or even make a loss, in order to gain more market share. Once they gain the desired market share they can start focussing on protecting that market share and focusing more on profit. However, BMC did recently get a new CEO, I don't know if they will re-adjust their strategy from here on forward though.
