With contribution of the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM) and the Ministry of Economy, and with Prime Minister, Binali Yıldırım’s attendance, the first ever "Turkey's 500 Great Service Exporters" was organized and awards were handed out to their rightful owners.
Along with Prime Minister Yıldırım, Deputy Prime Minister, Nurettin Canikli, Minister of Economy, Nihat Zeybekçi, Türksat CEO, Cenk Sen and Turkish Exporters' Union President Mehmet Büyükeşi were also in attendance.
Türksat was awarded first prize in the "communication services" category. Türksat CEO, Şen received the award from Deputy Prime Minister Canikli.
Şen, dedicated the award to the colleagues martyred by FETÖ during the coup attempt on July 15th. He said, "We are honored because of the value we created for our country and the first prize we received with this value."
"Thanks to our martyr friends, our broadcasts were not cut off"
Stating that Türksat fulfilled a serious duty in terms of Turkey’s communication. Şen emphasized that they continued working during the night of the coup attempt in order for citizens to have access to the correct information they sought after.
Şen said with his heroic staff he fulfilled Türksat’s task without any offset, and that his friends sacrificed their lives for this reason. "Because of our martyr friends we were able to transmit to every house in Turkey our President and Prime Minister leadership and called for our citizens to support each other. We are proud of this."
Şen concluded his speech by saying that Türksat continues to work and invest in order to further develop existing resources specially in regards to protecting Turkey's sovereignty rights in space. He said:
"We are meeting the communication infrastructure needs of developing Turkey with our new satellites. Just as our President and Prime Minister have stated on many platforms, we are launching two new satellites: Türksat 5A and Türksat 5B. We also plan to increase our existing capacity to 2 times the current rate in the year 2020 with our Türksat 6A domestic satellite."