Amid the crash of the helicopter carrying Iranian officials, Turkey did not miss the opportunity to promote its weapons, particularly drones.
Grasping the opportunity, Turkey announced that the bodies of the Iranian officials were found exclusively through their support and their drones. Let us note that Iran had asked for help from Turkey; the latter provided it, but the Turkish press covered it from another perspective, advertising the Turkish military equipment.
At the same time, the anti-Iranian forces have become active in Turkey, who, to put it mildly, are delighted by the news of the deaths of neighboring Iran’s high-ranking officials and wish that the next such accident would strike Erdoğan, the leader of their country. The other wing in Turkey believes that the death of Iranian officials is directly connected with Israel and Azerbaijan and that it was not an accident but a premeditated murder. We talked with Turkologist and Orientalist Gevorg Galtakyan about this policy of Turkey, the crash of the helicopter carrying Iranian officials, the military strength of the two countries, and other topics.
– Why is Turkey advertising the fact of having provided aid to Iran so much? What end is it pursuing by promoting its new drones?
– The drone propaganda has become an inseparable part of the Turkish media in the wake of the 44-day war. Unfortunately, the fallacy that it was mainly Bayraktar TB2 drones that earned Azerbaijan success in Artsakh has become widespread in the Armenian media as well. It is clear that their role should not be overestimated; they were one of a range of factors. Their aim is to show that security issues can and are being settled by Erdogan’s government and serve the fulfillment of national aspirations. This is what keeps him in power despite the country’s social and economic problems.
– What do we know about the new Turkish drones? They say myths have been created about Turkish drones, that they are just well advertised, but in fact are not that effective.
-Bayraktar Akıncı offensive drones, which, by the way, were also purchased by Azerbaijan this year (drone_drills), are the developed model of Bayraktar TB2 drones. Here, I would like to give some technical characteristics. An Akıncı drone can remain in midair for 24 hours; the flight height is 12 kilometers; it is equipped with an ASELFLIR-500 electro-optical reconnaissance, surveillance and targeting system, which can identify the target at a distance of up to 35 kilometers, has a night vision system and an obstacle-detecting radar system, which makes flights possible in low visibility. Its payload capacity is 1.5 tons.
– Why does Turkey undervalue Iran’s military equipment and question its effectiveness?
– As the Turkish Defense Ministry said in a statement that—at the request of the Iranian state authorities, received through the Turkish Foreign Ministry, one Akıncı drone and one night vision Cougar Helicopter were sent for the search and rescue operations following the crash of the helicopter carrying the Iranian president and his delegation—Iran had asked for help to carry out search and rescue operations especially in low visibility. Thus, the Iranian military capacity was actually unable to meet this challenge. This, I think, speaks of some of Iran’s technological flaws, which have mainly resulted from various technological sanctions imposed on the country. After all, many components of the Turkish drones are not Turkish-made at all.
– Let us now talk about the crashed helicopter. How can an aircraft carrying country’s officials crash?
– Of course, conspiracy theories cannot be ruled out altogether. Iran and its leadership have many powerful enemies in the world, but also taking into account the weather conditions, the possibility of human error and the gaps in Iran’s technological development, the most likely version is the helicopter crash due to an accident.
– Finally, let us talk about Turkey. Taking advantage of Iran’s misfortune, it advertises the weapons it has produced. Can this affect Iran-Turkey relations, considering that there are circles in Turkey that are against good relations with Iran and, to put it mildly, were delighted by the news of the death of Iranian officials?
-Turkey and Iran are old rivals, if not adversaries or enemies. At the same time, one of the features of the current world order is that sometimes there can be cooperation even between arch-enemies. Turkey has its own agenda and works day and night toward that agenda. I think that the lack of a clear agenda and a self-sacrificing approach to it is the most important of the problems of today’s Armenia.
In the end, I would like to express my heartfelt condolences to the friendly people of Iran. I am sure that clear conclusions will be drawn when the investigation is over.
