The Turkish-made Bayrakdar TB2 drone
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu boasted that if it weren’t for Turkey’s robust drone production it would have been impossible for Azerbaijan to “take Karabakh” during the 2020 Artsakh War.
“Today, Turkey has increased national and local production in the field of military industry to 80 percent,” Cavusoglu said at the opening of a local campaign headquarters for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the Ermenihaber news site reported.
“If we hadn’t reached that figure, if we hadn’t manufactured combat UAVs, if we hadn’t manufactured all kinds of ground, air defense and attack systems, including helicopters, it would have been difficult for Azerbaijan to take Karabakh,” Cavusoglu added, emphasizing that Turkey will continue to develop the local military industry so it is not dependent on other countries.
Cavusoglu’s comments come days after he and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met in Ankara and hailed the normalization process between Armenia and Turkey.