On November 23, 2022, the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye (TOBB), TOBB University of Economics and Technology (ETU), and defense electronics firm ASELSAN opened a Quantum Technologies Research Laboratory at the TOBB ETU Technology Center in Ankara. The ceremony was coordinated by the Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB), with SSB head Haluk Görgün in attendance. TOBB and ASELSAN also signed protocols for a Nationalization and Supplier Development Program for small and medium-sized enterprises and for Technology Center R&D laboratory allocation, according to a TOBB release.
TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that the laboratory would accelerate R&D and innovation, strengthen human resources, and increase international cooperation. He framed the collaboration as a response to an approaching technological revolution, saying the country needed to act before it was too late. ASELSAN had been building internal quantum research capabilities under its Research Center, with plans to establish a laboratory covering quantum sensing, computing, and communication.
TOBB ETU’s Superconducting Electronics Laboratory, operational since 2009, provided foundational infrastructure for the joint effort. The new quantum laboratory represented a formalization of the university-defense industry partnership that would later produce Turkey’s first quantum computer prototype.