The Erdogan government does not care where its exported weapons are used

Levent Kenez/Stockholm

The opposition has accused Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government of neglecting its international responsibility to ensure that exported weapons do not end up in the hands of unwitting end users.

In a written parliamentary question addressed to Defense Minister Yaşar Güler, Oğuz Kaan Salıcı, MP of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), said that the growth of Turkey's defense industry has also increased the Turkey's international responsibilities.

Salıcı submitted a series of written requests to Güler, questioning the ministry's practices and responsibilities regarding arms exports. He interrogates the number of approved and rejected export license applications over the past decade and sought assurance that Turkish military munitions would not be used against Turkey or its interests.

He further inquired about measures in place to prevent exported weapons from being used in actions that could lead to international sanctions against Turkey.

Salıcı also expressed concerns about monitoring compliance with end-user certificates, which are supposed to ensure that exported military products are not transferred to third parties. He asked how violations of these agreements were detected and what sanctions were imposed on importing countries if they violated these conditions.

Written questions from main opposition MP Oğuz Kaan Salıcı:

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Furthermore, Salıcı requested information on the criteria used to evaluate export license applications and whether relevant institutions such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Intelligence Organization, the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Industry and Technology were consulted during the approval process.

He also questioned whether arms exports that included foreign-made components required additional authorizations from countries of origin and what foreign content threshold was specified for those requirements.

Finally, Salıcı asked whether current laws and presidential decrees governing arms exports are adequate or whether new legislation is being considered to address these concerns.

In one of his written investigations, Salıcı claimed that Turkey has not yet faced any international problems regarding the use of its arms exported; however, this statement is inaccurate.

In 2021, opposition lawmakers criticized a military deal signed with Ethiopia, aimed at improving military relations and intelligence sharing, especially as Ethiopia and Egypt were involved in a dispute over the Nile dam. They warned that Turkish weapons or military drones could be used by Ethiopia against Egypt, potentially triggering a new crisis between Ankara and Cairo, just as Turkey was trying to repair relations with Egypt.

In 2022, Turkish-Ethiopian military relations rose to the international agenda after the Ethiopian army on January 7, 2022 struck a primary school full of children, women and elderly men with drones purchased from Turkey. At least 59 civilians were killed and dozens more were injured. Until then, Turkey was not known to have sold drones to Ethiopia. The weapons remnants recovered from the site were determined to be MAM-L (intelligent micromunition) guided bombs produced by the Turkish company Roketsan and associated exclusively with Turkish-made Bay bombs.raktar drones. Turkish embassy reportedly moved to Kenya for security reasons; However, the The Turkish Foreign Ministry denied this, saying only the ambassador had temporarily left Ethiopia.

Turkey's sale of military drones to Ukraine caused tensions with Russia in October 2021. Ukrainian state television broadcast a video showing a Turkish-made military drone used against Russian-backed forces in the eastern Donbass region on October 23, 2021.

The Kremlin said the next day that its fears over Turkey's decision to sell attack drones to Ukraine were coming true and that Turkish drones risked destabilizing the situation in eastern Ukraine.

However, Turkey has said it is not responsible for how the drones it sells are used. “If a country buys them from us, they are no longer Turkish,” Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, then foreign minister, told reporters after meeting his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov at the G20 summit in Rome in November 2021.

“Maybe Turkey produced it, but it belongs to Ukraine,” he said. However, he also called on Ukrainian authorities to stop referring to Turkish drones or Turkey when talking about drones.

Despite its discomfort with Turkey's continued sales of drones to Ukraine after Russia's invasion in 2022, Moscow has not turned this issue into a crisis point between the two countries. This restraint is largely due to Turkey's decision not to adhere to Western sanctions and its role in circumventing the embargo against Russia.

An important factor in the success of Turkey's initiatives to increase defense exports in recent years, also known as “drone diplomacy”, is Turkey's focus on commercial targets rather than how and against whom these weapons are used. used. African countries are increasingly attracted to Turkish weapons, especially drones, due to the ease and efficiency of sales procedures and approval processes. Turkey also does not have a lengthy approval process for defense exports, unlike the United States and the European Union.