Turkey ‘not happy’ with Canada’s continued arms embargo, top diplomat says
Global News
Turkey's deputy minister of foreign affairs said Canada shouldn't have such restrictions on a military ally and also called for more flights between the two countries.
Turkey’s deputy minister of foreign affairs says Ankara still wants Canada to drop its arms embargo, while pushing back on concerns about tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
“One issue … about (which) unfortunately Turkish diplomats are not happy, is the restriction of defence equipment, although we are in the same alliance of defence for collective security,” said Ahmet Yildiz, one of the top diplomats in Turkey’s foreign service.
During a Tuesday forum organized by the Institute for Peace and Diplomacy think tank, Yildiz said Canada shouldn’t have such restrictions on a military ally.
“We are disappointed that these restrictions continue. We have a lot of responsibilities in the Black Sea, in the Mediterranean to defend NATO interests, but we are sanctioned.”
Canada halted new export permits to Turkey in October 2019 after a military incursion into Syria, and temporarily downgraded those restrictions in April 2020 for six months.
In October 2020, Canada again suspended export permits given “credible evidence that certain Canadian military goods and technology exported to Turkey” had been used in conflicts such as that in the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
The region has been controlled by Armenia in the past and is populated by ethnic Armenians, but it is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.
Ottawa believes Azerbaijan has been using Turkish drones equipped with Canadian sensors, in line with extensive media reporting. It also has evidence that Turkish drones with Canadian sensors might have been used in Libya and Syria.
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