Canada stops arms exports to NATO ally Turkey after drone tech misuse

A probe found that Canadian drone technology was being used in conflicts following which the country has decided to block military arms export to Turkey, a NATO ally. 

The shipments were first suspended last October over allegations that Azerbaijan used Canadian imaging and targeting systems on unmanned drones in its clash with Armenia. An investigation was pending. 

Canada Foreign Minister Marc Garneau said in a statement, “Following this review, which found credible evidence that Canadian technology exported to Turkey was used in Nagorno-Karabakh, today I am announcing the cancellation of permits that were suspended in the fall of 2020,” reported AFP. 

Also Read: Armenia PM announces snap polls to defuse crisis

“This use was not consistent with Canadian foreign policy, nor end-use assurances given by Turkey,” he added.

The export ban affects 29 permits and applies to a wide variety of military goods and technologies including components for the production of aircraft, software and technical data for flight simulators, satellite equipment and firearm components.

The value of Canadian exports of weaponry to Turkey was last pegged in 2019 at more than Can$150 million (US$120 million).

Garneau indicated that he spoke earlier with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu, saying future permit “applications related to NATO cooperation programs will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.”

Also Read: Toronto shuts schools as Canada reels under third wave of COVID-19

Six weeks of fighting that broke out last September in Nagorno-Karabakh claimed the lives of some 6,000 people and ended in November with a Russian-brokered ceasefire that saw Armenia cede to Baku swathes of territory it had controlled since the 1990s.

Ankara backed its longtime ally Azerbaijan in the fighting in the ethnic Armenian province that had broken away from Azerbaijan in a bitterly fought war.

During a military parade in Baku last December, Turkey paraded its drones, with Turkish television saying they had “turned the tide” of the Karabakh war.

The Canadian investigation also found that Turkey shared the Canadian drone equipment with Libya’s interim government in violation of a UN arms embargo, for use in airstrikes, as well as by Turkey itself for surveillance and targeting in Syria.

Ottawa ordered a separate freeze in October 2019 on the issuing of new export permits for military shipments to Turkey, after its incursions against Kurds in northern Syria.

The Canadian government feared at that time that these attacks would lead to a further destabilization of the region, worsen the humanitarian situation and roll back progress in the fight against the Islamic State group. The suspension was lifted in May of that year.