On April 12, Canada announced the cancellation of 29 military export permits to Turkey. Twenty-five of these permits cover WESCAM cameras that are used in drones.

Thomas Juneau, assistant professor at the graduate school of public and international affairs at the University of Ottawa, told Al-Monitor, “Officially, Canada took the decision to cancel 29 permits for the export of military exports to Turkey because an internal government investigation found credible evidence that airstrike-targeting gear that had been made in Canada and then exported to Turkey was subsequently re-exported to Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani military then used Turkish-built drones that included these components in its war with Armenia. The end-user agreement, however, did not permit the reshipment of these pieces of equipment to a third country. The Canadian government investigation also found credible evidence that drones built in Turkey and that included Canadian equipment were used by Turkey in Syria.”

The decision to halt the export of these defense technologies dates back to 2019, as the Canadian government’s final review report explains. Ottawa temporarily had suspended military technology exports to Ankara after Turkey initiated a military operation into northern Syria. But Ankara was able to convince the sale of more air-strike gear to drone maker Baykar Technologies before the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.

During the peak of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in October 2020, Canada announced the suspension of drone technology export permits to Turkey. The Canadian government report explains that they wanted to examine the shot-down Baykar drone. The report emphasizes that Baykar cannot be held responsible for how the Turkish government used the drones in Syria, Armenia, Libya or other places.