Our Ethical Principles

1.PURPOSE AND SCOPE

FORTE aims to develop original solutions in accordance with the expectations of defense industry and institutional customers, international quality standards, and legal requirements. This goal includes contributing to the economic and social development of our country and aims to be a symbol of reliability, continuity, and respect on a national and global scale for customers, staff, and suppliers.

• Working in line with the mission and aiming to achieve the vision at every step,
• Developing leader, innovative, customer and solution-oriented strategies,
• Keeping customer satisfaction at the highest level,
• Adopting the spirit of corporate belonging and corporateness and creating awareness that our staff is the most important capital,
• Being humble, respectful, and understanding mutually,
• Adopting continuous improvement and working with an efficiency goal,
• It is necessary to adhere to superior business ethics and honest working principles,

based on above principles, it is aimed by FORTE staff and those representing FORTE to be a good person/a good company in the decisions they make and behaviors they display while performing their duties. Being a good company within the ethical behavior rules in the business and social world for FORTE, and the path to being a good person representing FORTE in the business and social world. Based on this, it is the primary responsibility of all FORTE personnel to continue and further the association of the FORTE name with professionalism, honesty, and trust.

2.PERSONNEL RELATIONS

• Searching for job suitability as the only measure in hiring and employment, providing equal opportunities without any discrimination,
• Bringing the most qualified young people and experienced professionals to our company to advance FORTE,
• Maximizing the benefits from the skills, strength, and creativity of the staff,
• Providing equal opportunities for training, guiding, and developing the staff,
• Rewarding success with fair and competitive salary policies, effective and objective performance evaluation systems and practices, and a bonus system,
• Increasing staff loyalty to the company by providing equal opportunities in appointments, promotions, rotations, and rewards,
• Providing clean, healthy, safe, and peaceful working conditions to the personnel,
• Creating and maintaining a transparent and respectful working environment that promotes cooperation and mutual respect as the most important element,
• Evaluating, responding to, and taking motivational measures for the opinions and suggestions of the staff,
• Not sharing personal information related to staff with third parties without the staff's permission and knowledge, unless legally required,
• Being respectful of human rights.

3.EXTERNAL RELATIONS

• Compliance with laws and the legal framework outlined in our field of work,
• Compliance with national and international management standards requirements acquired by our company,
• Adopting the principle of acting in accordance with all relevant laws, rules, and regulations in the countries where we operate and will enter, and the international treaties to which the Republic of Turkey is a party,
• Managing all business operations and accounting systems in full and proper form according to the laws, recording and reporting,
• Ensuring that contracts with third parties and organizations are in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, and ethical rules, and are clear and understandable,
• Not accepting any gifts or offers that could create dependency, give an impression of irregularity, or could be perceived as such, other than gifts given in accordance with traditions, customs, and laws or of souvenir/promotional nature,
• Adhering to the criteria of accuracy, honesty, equality, and independence.

4.CUSTOMER RELATIONS

• Creating/supplying added value for customers, meeting their demands and needs,
• Providing quality products and services and following stable policies,
• Being professional and fair within the framework of courtesy rules in relations with customers,
• Protecting personal information and privacy of customers in accordance with relevant laws,
• Not accepting any gifts or offers that could create dependency, give an impression of irregularity, or could be perceived as such, other than gifts given in accordance with traditions, customs, and laws or of souvenir/promotional nature,
• Not providing misleading and incomplete information to customers.

5.SUPPLIER AND AUTHORIZED SERVICE RELATIONS

• Carefully and meticulously selecting suppliers, dealers, and authorized sellers to work with, ensuring that they have not made any unethical or illegal statements, conducting necessary inspections and determinations in accordance with the relevant implementation principles, ensuring they fulfill their legal obligations, act respectfully towards human rights, and adhere to business ethics and anti-corruption principles,
• Making decisions with objective criteria in supplier selection,
• Protecting the ethical values of the company and suppliers in relations with suppliers,
• Not accepting any gifts or offers that could create dependency, give an impression of irregularity, or could be perceived as such, other than gifts given in accordance with traditions, customs, and laws or of souvenir/promotional nature,
• Adhering to reasonable confidentiality and occupational safety rules in supplier audits and visits.

6.COMPETITOR AND COMPETITION RELATIONS

• Complying with competition rules and supporting laws and regulations in all countries, sectors, and areas where FORTE operates, and raising awareness among staff about this,
• Not making any negative/false statements about competitors and their managers/employees and not allowing any speculation or negativity,
• Not breaking any laws to access competitors' information and not resorting to unethical methods,
• Not allowing staff to collaborate with competitors and not allowing company information to be used against competitors for competitive purposes.

7.POLITICAL ACTIVITIES

FORTE;

• Does not collaborate with political parties or any groups/teams related to parties and does not participate in supporting activities.
• Does not interfere with the political decisions of its personnel but does not allow groupings due to political decisions within the company.
• Does not allow personnel to use the company's name, title, and resources for political activities.

8.HARASSMENT, INTIMIDATION, AND PSYCHOLOGICAL BULLYING (MOBBING)

FORTE;

• Does not allow psychological violence, pressure, and encirclement in the workplace or any place due to work on its personnel and does not permit it.
• Ensures and supports the protection of the personality and self-confidence of its personnel.
• Does not allow its personnel to be worn down by emotional attacks.
• Does not tolerate systematic and planned behaviors that would cool off personnel from work, reduce their performance, or lead to their resignation.

9.OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY, ENVIRONMENT

FORTE;

• Aims to fully ensure worker health and occupational safety at the workplace and during work, takes all necessary measures for this purpose. Personnel act in accordance with the rules and instructions set for this purpose and report any deficiencies to the relevant person or managers. Occupational health and safety improvement and remediation activities are the common responsibility of all personnel.
• Acts with environmental protection consciousness for Turkey and the world and spreads this consciousness to all company personnel.
• Supports preventive approaches against environmental threats, works to spread more effective environmental responsibility and develop environmentally friendly technologies.
• Aims to preserve natural resources and use them in the most efficient way, to keep possible environmental impacts under control from the design stage of its products to the end of their usage life, to minimize and recycle wastes as much as possible at the source.
• Acts in accordance with occupational safety, health laws, and standards in all activities. Takes all necessary measures and applies principles to create a safe and healthy work environment.
• Prohibits the use of alcohol, drugs, etc., in the company and/or in any environment that will affect work performance, and does not allow smoking in places/areas other than designated areas.

10.ETHICAL BEHAVIOR RULES TO BE FOLLOWED BY PERSONNEL

FORTE personnel;

• Always comply with the law.
• Performs their duties within the framework of basic moral and human values,
• Acts with good faith and understanding in all relationships to provide mutual benefits.
• Does not gain unjust benefits from any individuals or organizations for any purpose.
• Acts in accordance with the relevant business ethics rules and all implementation principles supporting these rules and does not engage in behaviors that would prevent other personnel from properly performing their tasks, does not disrupt work harmony.
• Adopts, applies, and continuously improves the company's vision, mission, policy, manuals, processes, and procedures.
• Adopts working with cost consciousness (avoiding waste) and an efficiency goal.
• Does not engage in any behavior, statement, or correspondence that commits the company without clear authorization.
• Takes care of all the tangible and intangible assets of the company, including the company's information and information systems, as if they were personal property, protecting them against possible loss, damage, misuse, abuse, theft, and sabotage.
• Does not use company time and resources directly or indirectly for personal benefit and/or political activity and interests.
• Avoids unauthorized use of patents, copyrights, trade secrets, brands, computer programs, or other intellectual and industrial property rights of other companies - knowingly - in violation of the law.
• Takes necessary measures in accordance with relevant procedures when it is necessary to share any confidential information related to intellectual and industrial property rights of the community with third parties.
• Ensures controlled keeping and archiving of all records for their legal duration.
• Does not respond to information requests from third parties classified as confidential for the company without the approval of senior management.
• Ensures the accuracy of the company's statements and reports.
• Does not participate in or allow internal groupings.
• Pays attention to appearance as much as work and dresses in a way that reflects the company culture.

11.CONFIDENTIALITY

FORTE, based on the "need to know" principle, takes care to protect the most important and valuable assets of our company, our personnel, customer, stakeholder, and company data, and to ensure that company materials assigned to them are not used outside the company.

Therefore, confidentiality matters;

• Protecting the company's financial and commercial secrets, information that could weaken competitive strength, personnel rights, and information, acting with the awareness that agreements with business partners are within the "confidentiality" framework, ensuring their protection and confidentiality,
• Not sharing information and documents they learn and possess during work with unauthorized individuals and authorities inside and outside the institution for any purpose, not using them for speculative purposes (directly or indirectly),
• Adopting the "need to know" principle,
• Not using information not publicly available related to the companies they work for and their customers and other individuals and companies they do business with for purposes other than those anticipated, not sharing with individuals without necessary permissions.

12.SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE

• Acting responsibly as a good person/a good company in communications and sharing on social media channels not provided or controlled by the company, including public forums, personal blogs, social media accounts, on the web, and mobile applications,
• Avoiding conflicts of interest and politics,
• Not obtaining unfair benefits for themselves, their relatives, or third parties by taking advantage of their title and authority,
• Taking care to not fall into a conflict of interest with the current workplace during personal investments.