Turkish Bayraktar TB-2 drone operated by the Ethiopian government killed fifty-nine civilians in a camp in Tigray for internally displaced persons in January. Earlier in March, Turkey’s killer drone was trending on social media after the Kyiv zoo named a newborn lemur “Bayraktar.”
While Turkey’s TB-2 drones have been celebrated for their effectiveness in fending off Russia’s assault, their fetishization has left the victims of Turkey’s war industry concerned by the accompanying rehabilitation of Ankara’s public image.
Turkey’s drones first came to prominence when they helped put an end to the Syrian army’s advance on Idlib in early 2020. The drones were difficult to detect by radar and caught Syrian forces off guard. International observers were also surprised. The affordable UAV was viewed as a game-changer.
Considerably less attention, however, has been dedicated to the devastating toll these weapons have had on civilians—and Turkey’s willingness to deploy these weapons of war in the service of ethnic cleansing and genocide.
The use of Turkey’s Bayraktars by despots is not merely coincidental. It is exactly the purpose they were designed to serve.
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The impetus for Turkey’s drone program was inherently violent. The program sought to overcome the geographical barriers to its efforts to subdue Kurdish resistance in the country’s southeast.
For years, Turkey relied on Israel and the United States to access drone surveillance to track down Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) insurgents. But relying on these foreign operators exposed Turkey to foreign surveillance, and limited Turkey’s capacity to act immediately on intelligence. In some cases, it led to impulsive strikes that resulted in massive civilian casualties. After a breakdown of relations with Israel in 2010 and increasing tensions with the United States, Ankara was determined to find a domestic solution. It was in this vacuum that Baykar Defense, already manufacturing small reconnaissance drones for the Turkish army, began manufacturing the TB-2. The new drone was successfully tested to widespread acclaim in 2015.
Read more: National Interest
