This country was once known as a peacemaker and peacekeeper. Now it is better known for selling instruments of death and destruction. As occurs in other sectors, profit-seeking arms dealers are either amoral or immoral. In this ProPublica article, Canada is mentioned 26 times.
Turkey is changing the face of modern warfare with its TB2 drone. As the weapon spreads across the globe, some U.S. lawmakers seek to crack down on the country, saying it’s exploiting its NATO status to obtain key parts from Western manufacturers…
The technology offers even the smallest militaries the capacity to inflict the kind of damage that was once the exclusive province of wealthy, Western nations, and Turkey seems eager to expand global sales of the weapon.
…a whole range of components — from antennas to fuel pumps to missile batteries — were made by manufacturers in the U.S., Canada and Europe…XThe drone’s engine was made in Austria by Bombardier Recreational Products, based out of Quebec, Canada…
Turkish officials, as well as the drone maker Baykar, pushed Canada to allow the sale of a key part: the MX-15 imaging and targeting system, which was made by Wescam. The company had received public funding from Canada, including a $75 million grant in 2015, to develop such a system…
Publicly, Turkish officials shrugged off the trade restrictions, saying the country had enough of an industrial base that it could produce what it needed on its own. But in private, Turkish officials, as well as the drone maker Baykar, pushed Canada to allow the sale of a key part: the MX-15 imaging and targeting system, which was made by Wescam. The company had received public funding from Canada, including a $75 million grant in 2015, to develop such a system…
Turkish defense ministry told Canada it would not export the cameras to any third party.
But six months later, the TB2s showed up in Azerbaijan, with Baku’s propaganda drone strike videos clearly indicating the MX-15s were being used there. Photos of crashed drones, taken by Armenian forces and posted on social media, showed that the cameras had been made in Canada as late as June 2020…Turkey appeared to have broken the U.N. arms embargo on Libya and illegally exported the TB2s with the Canadian MX-15 camera system to Azerbaijan, in violation of its pledges.
ProPublica: The Drone Problem
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That company received $75M to create things to kill people with???? Did they ever pay anywhere near that in taxes?
if the feds had the money to give some company of death $75M I’d like B.C. or any province to receive the same amount to pay for an increase in affordable housing. I’m sure the Territories wouldn’t mind $75M for health care either.”
Letting Turkey into E.U. starter club was just plain dumb. They have never been a friend of European countries. As to joining NATO, sure but might as well mail all military secrets to Putin directly along with China and North Korea.
I’ve always suspected Turkey was given a step up so as to have them within the fold, and as a barrier to Russia. However, that was not smart. Turkey is not a democracy. Their leader for life, just isn’t up to the job of running a democracy. For that matter, if Orban gets any worse, dump Hungary also.
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