Ottawa, Oct 6 : Canada has suspended its arms export permits to Turkey after it was claimed that Ankara was using drone-sensor technology created by an Ontario company in the fight between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
In a statement on Monday, Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said: “In line with Canada’s robust export control regime and due to the ongoing hostilities, I have suspended the relevant export permits to Turkey, so as to allow time to further assess the situation.
“Canada continues to be concerned by the ongoing conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh resulting in shelling of communities and civilian casualties.” Champagne has also ordered a probe into a claim by Canadian peace research institute Project Ploughshares that it had evidence a Canadian-developed sensor technology was being used in Turkish military drones, CTV News reported.
Ploughshares researcher Kelsey Gallagher told CTV News the decision showed that “Canada’s arms control regime is working how it should”.
“These arms have posed a risk in Turkish hands for some time now and really should have tripped Canada’s risk assessment a long time ago, this is kind of overdue,” he added.
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