During the offensive against Artsakh and Armenia launched by Azerbaijan on September 27, Turkish-made Bayraktar UAVs have been used, along with F-16 fighting falcons.
Mediamax tried to gather facts about Bayraktar and revealed some remarkable facts.
The Bayraktar Tactical UAS is a surveillance and reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) initially developed for the Turkish Armed Forces. It is developed by the Kale-Baykar, a joint venture between the Kale Group and Baykar Technologies.
Selçuk Bayraktar, who married Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s daughter Sümeyye in May 2016, is technical director of of Baykar Makina, a family-run business that sells the TB2 UAV drones to the Turkish military.
Bayraktar UAV could have been named after Erdogan's son-in-law, although the word “Bayraktar” in Turkish means “stamp” or “standard bearer”.
The first batch of “Bayraktar” was provided to the Turkish Armed Forces in November 2014. There are two versions of Bayraktar UAVs: reconnaissance and combat. Both versions are available in the Turkish Armed Forces. In total, information about 110 UAVs is available in open sources.
How did Erdogan's son end up in the UAV control room?
A photograph of Erdogan’s son, Bilal, sitting in an operations room for drones during Turkish attacks on Syria in 2018 sparked controversy on social media and anger among the government's main opposition. By the way, Erdogan’s son-in-law Selçuk Bayraktar posted the picture on Twitter.
The publication of the photograph by Selçuk Bayraktar drew swift response from the opposition Republican People’s Party, which questioned why Bilal Erdoğan, who had no official position in the government or military, was permitted to sit beside military personnel as Turkey attacked Kurdish targets.
Where were Bayraktars used?
The Turkish military used both combat and reconnaissance versions of Bayraktar in operations against PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) militants.
Turkey used Bayraktar in Libya. Cases when Bayraktars were shot down in Libya have been reported.
In 2018, Syrian Democratic Forces announced that they had shot down a Turkish Bayraktar UAV. All three cases were reported in February-March 2020 in northern Syria.
According to Russian sources, the Syrian Air Defense Forces shot down 7 Bayraktar UAVs.
Azerbaijan officially started buying Bayraktar UAVs from Turkey in the summer of 2020. In June 2020, Azerbaijani Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov announced that his country had decided to purchase Turkish-made drones.
Amalie Khachatryan, Ara Tadevosyan
