By Cesar Jaramillo and Kelsey Gallagher
A clearer picture is emerging of some of the trade-offs that Turkey is expecting in return for accepting Sweden’s membership to NATO. These reportedly include facilitating Turkey’s path to joining the European Union and the potential reversal of existing arms embargoes against Turkey, including the unfreezing of negotiations around Canada’s ban on exports of military equipment to the country.
The European Union’s decision to withhold Turkey’s accession process stems from valid concerns about democratic backsliding and alleged human rights abuses under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s leadership. And while it remains to be seen whether Turkey’s ambitions to join the EU will be met through political bargaining, Canada must not lose sight of the fact that the foundation of arms controls lies in their impartiality, based on objective criteria, rather than political considerations or quid pro quo arrangements.
Canada’s current embargo against Turkey, which was implemented to stop the transfer of Canadian drone components to the Turkish government, has been in place since 2021 – and Canadian officials would be well advised to maintain such sanctions.
Turkey began deploying Bayraktar TB2 drones equipped with Canadian-made L3Harris Wescam surveillance and targeting sensors to conduct airstrikes in repeat combat operations in Iraq and Syria. Credible human rights monitors have charged Turkey with failing to discriminate between combatants and civilians during such aerial incursions, which have included attacks on schools, hospitals and other critical civilian infrastructure.
In 2019, Turkey also shipped a number of these drones – illicitly equipped with the same Canadian targeting sensors – to Libya, in blatant violation of a UN arms embargo. The next year, Turkey again diverted these sensors, this time on drones for allied Azerbaijan in its assault on the Nagorno-Karabakh region, where Azerbaijan’s forces are alleged to have committed war crimes.
In 2021, Canada finally acted to suspend and eventually cancel these arms exports to Turkey after their illicit diversion in the context of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. These were not arbitrary measures; they were grounded in the Erdogan government’s consistent failure to act as a trustworthy recipient of Canadian military goods. These findings were reflected in a report published by the government of Canada in April, 2021, which conceded that Turkey’s illicit transfer of arms constituted diversion.
