Top US senator introduces amendment to track US drone parts to Turkey
US Senator Bob Menendez, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, introduced a piece of legislation on Thursday that seeks to track and restrict the sale of American parts to Turkey's drone programme.
The legislation, an amendment to Congress' annual defence spending bill, would require the Biden administration to issue a report on Turkish drone exports beginning in 2018 and whether any of their drones contain American-made parts.
It would also require the administration to assess whether Turkey's drone exports are in violation of the US Arms Export Control Act or any other law.
The Arms Export Control Act requires that any weapons the US gives to foreign governments, or in this case parts for a weapon, be only used for legitimate self-defence.
"Turkey's drone sales are dangerous, destabilizing and a threat to peace and human rights," Menendez said in a statement.
"The US should have no part of it, and this amendment is a recognition that we must prevent US parts from being included in these Turkish weapons."
Menendez also introduced another amendment that would end an exemption used to continue providing assistance to the government of Azerbaijan, which fought a conflict against Armenian forces in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region last year.
"As the regime in Baku, with Turkey's support, continues choosing a path of violence instead of a peaceful, negotiated process between Armenia and Azerbaijan, it is long past time for this and all future administrations to halt this type of assistance and fully respect Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act," Menendez said.
During the conflict, Turkey shipped at least six armed attack drones to Baku while Turkish military staff helped shape Azerbaijan's strategy to capture the territory.
Bipartisan alarm
Turkey has emerged as one of the world's premier makers of armed drones, which helped ally Azerbaijan make sweeping gains in the six-week war with Armenia.
The drone technology has been sought after by a number of countries, including Saudi Arabia and Poland, and recently Kyrgyzstan, which signed a deal to purchase Turkish armed drones last week, two sources told Middle East Eye.
In the African continent, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Rwanda have been eyeing a deal to purchase Ankara's drones.
While Turkey and the US are allies under Nato, the rise of Turkish drone technology and its proliferation around the world has been a cause for bipartisan alarm in both the House and Senate.
In August, a group of Democratic and Republican members of Congress issued a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling for a suspension of drone technology to Turkey and for a hearing on Ankara's drone proliferation.
The amendment introduced by Menendez also comes amid a Turkish request to purchase a new set of US-made F-16 fighter jets, of which Ankara is seeking to cash in on a $1.4bn payment that it made before it was expelled from the F-35 fighter jet programme.
US President Joe Biden told his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan that he would do his best to secure the deal for him, but added that there was a "fifty-fifty" chance of the sale being approved by Congress.
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