President Erdogan was in US in last September. Turkey ordered 40 planes to Boeing. While he visited France during January 2018, he ordered 25 commercial planes to Airbus. 

As a matter of fact, there are 18 number of commercial planes idle. One of them even has not flown since August 2017 till today. While this is the reality, why Turkey needs so many commercial planes. Moreover, what is the strategy behind it?

The third airport will be in service during 2018 September. The Ataturk Airport would be used for cargo purposes whereas the new airport will serve for passenger aviation. Although the capacity will be doubled, does Turkish Air Fleet need to expand so heavily. 

Commercial planes can be spared if their maintanance expenses are high or they are getting old. With Turkish Airlines fleet, there is only one plane needs to be decommissioned. The rest are under good operation conditions. There are 8 number of long distance Boeing planes idle. Moreover, almost all newly ordered planes are long distance where Turkish Airlines are not competitive in long distance flights due to geographical reason. Therefore, those new ordered planes can be only explained under political reasonings. 

While Turkey has ongoing disputes with US and EU, those new ordered planes can only be regarded as "hush-money". There are no critical commercial planing for long term that would sustain these purchases. Moreover, these critical purchase would make country need of spare part tied to foreing suppliers. While Turkey is on thje verge of developing aviation technology by its own resources, new orders have causes a great disruption in national aviation industry in long term.

If Turkey wants to develop its own aviation technology, those purchases shall gradually decrease but those budget shall be reserved for technology development projects. Unless Turkey does so, Turkey cannot break its dependence to foreign supplies in long term which would ultimately affect national interest in long term.