Six years ago the Turkish government announced that their armed forces were switching from the H&K G3 to an HK416 derivative that they were manufacturing domestically under license from H&K. The rifle, which was virtually identical to the HK416N, was called the Mehmetçik-1. Since that announcement I have not seen or heard the Mehmetçik-1 mentioned anywhere. Apparently Turkish soldiers, who were used to their 7.62mm battle rifles, disliked the range and stopping power of the 5.56mm cartridge.

A few days ago MKEK and government officials announced a new service rifle, the MKEK MPT-76 National Rifle. According to them, it is the first Turkish designed service rifle. These photos were published on the Facebook page of the Savunma Sanayii Müsteşarlığı (the Turkish government department that manages the defense industry) …

It is clear from these photos that the design is based on the AR-10. At least externally it bears a very close resemblance to the H&K HK417. According to a post by Tolga on WAFF forum, the see-through handle is for troops mounting and dismounting from vehicles, and the curved handguard in front of the magazine well is to keep the hands of conscripts away from the handguard (they are not issued gloves).

You can see the rifle in action here:

And some politicians shooting blanks into the air with it here: