Erdogan reveals that Putin made an offer for Turkish Bayraktar drones currently being delivered to Ukraine
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has revealed that Russia and the United Arab Emirates are interested in collaborating with Baykar, the company that will attack Bayraktar and Akinci with drones. Several media outlets in Turkey reported as much on Tuesday, citing Erdogan’s comments at a meeting of senior AK party officials the previous night. The revelation caused a stir as Baykar exported around 50 drones to Ukraine this year.
The UAE has offered to build a factory in Baykar, while Russian President Vladimir Putin said “let’s work together,” Erdogan told party officials on Monday, according to CNN Turk. The coverage was shared by other outlets such as TGRT and Haber 7.
No further details were given except that Putin’s alleged proposal came during last week’s meeting in Tehran, where he and Erdogan met Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to discuss the Syria peace process and ‘other questions.
Erdogan made the offers as part of praise for the performance of Turkey’s military industry ahead of the celebrations to be held in August.
Baykar attacked Bayraktar TB2 and Akinci drones, which helped Azerbaijan defeat Armenia in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war. Ukraine ordered a dozen before fighting with Russia broke out , and has received a total of 50 since February, according to the Department of Defense. in Kyiv.
TB2 drones were also used in Libya and Syria, but reportedly performed less well against Russian air defenses in Ukraine. kyiv would now only reserve them for “special missions”.
Baykar CEO Haluk Bayraktar told CNN last week that his company will “never” sell drones to Russia.
“There is a strategic relationship between Turkey and Ukraine, especially in the fields of aviation and space travel,” he said. “Turkey supports Ukraine with armed drone technology. We did not ship or deliver anything to Russia.”
Russia has deployed reconnaissance and attack drones produced by Ukraine. Earlier this month, the United States accused Moscow of wanting to buy hundreds of attack drones from Iran. Tehran denied the request.
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