Erdogan turned the Karabakh conflict into a testing ground for “Drones”



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From the moment of the outbreak of the battles between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the Nagorno Karabakh region, the Erdogan regime quickly intervened and sided with Azerbaijan and supported it with weapons and mercenaries, which was condemned by most countries. Europeans and Arabs.

The British newspaper The Times said that the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan since late September over the Nagorno Karabakh region has become a testing ground for Turkish drones.

The British newspaper confirmed that during the recent conflict, many of the attacks carried out by Azerbaijan came with drones, not fighters or artillery.

He referred to Turkey’s attempt to take advantage of the Armenian-Azerbaijani crisis to expand in the region and show itself as a great power.

In January, Azerbaijan bought the Bayraktar TB2 armed drones, manufactured by Baykar, owned by the son-in-law of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkey has already used these planes in Libya, against the PKK in northern Iraq, Syria and eastern Turkey, and to monitor ships in the Mediterranean.

This week, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev admitted that Turkish drones are also being used in the Nagorno Karabakh region, which could change the rules of the game there.

The London-based company Airwars, which specializes in monitoring wars, said Turkish drones were used in 268 airstrikes in Libya, when they were fighting for the Muslim Brotherhood government Fayez al-Sarraj in Tripoli.

The aircraft also killed 67 civilians, although investigators said this figure is much lower than that caused by conventional weapons, especially since the “TB-2” aircraft’s small payload makes it very useful in targeted attacks.

“It’s a very cheap way for them to get involved and a very easy way to intervene, especially in a conflict where Turkey is definitely using drones to expand as a superpower,” said Oliver Imhoff, a researcher at Airwars.

Erdogan sees the drone program as a source of national pride and an important component of his goal of self-sufficiency in defense equipment by 2023.

The “Times” noted that Turkey’s defense spending almost doubled to 2.5% of GDP between 2015 and 2018.

Last year, the Erdogan regime spent $ 1.67 billion on defense development, ignoring the worsening economic crisis in Turkey and the cries of its citizens about the country’s financial crisis.

Turkish newspapers describe the TB2 aircraft as “domestic”, but 7% of its components are imported.

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