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| Russia Offers Cooperation with Turkish Drone Manufacturer Bayraktar |
Ankara - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Russia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were interested in working with Baykar. Baykar is a company that makes Bayraktar and Akinci attack drones which are known to be reliable on the battlefield. Several media outlets in Turkey reported this on Tuesday (26/7/2022), citing Erdogan's remarks at a meeting of top AK party officials the night before.
The revelation caused a stir, as Baykar has exported about 50 drones to Ukraine this year. Currently Russia and Kiev are at war. If cooperation between Russia and Turkey is realized in Baykar, then the map of the Ukrainian conflict could change. "The UAE offered to build the Baykar factory, while Russian President Vladimir Putin said 'let's work together'," Erdogan told party officials on Monday, according to CNN Turk.
The news was echoed by other outlets, such as TGRT and Haber 7. Read also: Ukraine's Military Morale Declines, Unity Fades No further details were revealed, except that Putin's alleged proposal came during last week's meeting in Tehran, where he and Erdogan met. with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to discuss the peace process in Syria and other matters.
Erdogan made the offer in the context of praising the achievements of Turkey's military industry ahead of the party's upcoming anniversary celebrations in August. Baykar built the Bayraktar TB2 and Akinci attack drones, which are believed to have helped Azerbaijan defeat Armenia in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war.
Ukraine ordered a dozen of them before the outbreak of fighting with Russia, and has received a total of 50 since February, according to the Ministry of Defense in Kiev. TB-2 drones have also been used in Libya and Syria, but are thought to have fared less well against Russian air defenses in Ukraine. Kiev is now reportedly only keeping the drone for "special missions."
Just last week, Baykar CEO Haluk Bayraktar told CNN that his company "will never" sell drones to Russia. "There is a strategic relationship between Turkey and Ukraine, especially in the field of aviation and space," he said.
He added, “Turkey is supporting Ukraine with armed drone technology. We don't ship or supply anything to Russia." Russia has used domestically produced reconnaissance and attack drones in Ukraine. Earlier this month, the US accused Moscow of wanting to buy hundreds of attack drones from Iran. Tehran denies the claim.