ANKARA -

At a time when Turkey occupied the world with its defense industries, which made remarkable progress in the past two decades, especially in the field of drones, and while the presence of the Turkish military forces expanded to include various new geographies with major military bases;

Ankara goes beyond these frameworks to provide military equipment and munitions in the form of grants and donations to its allies, making it a member of the military donors club.

On March 21, 2018, the Turkish ambassador to Lebanon, Çatagay Erciyes, revealed a program through which Ankara provides military aid to foreign countries, in a rare statement by a Turkish government official talking about this program.

Turkish military aid falls within the framework of Turkey's efforts in recent years to increase its hard power, according to Turkish journalist and political analyst Mehmet Celik.

In an interview with Al Jazeera Net, Celik considered that as a result of the political influence and technological progress in the defense industries, Turkey has also strengthened its ability to intervene in the conflict arenas.

Tracking military cooperation relations between Turkey and other countries shows that at least 16 countries benefit from Turkish military aid in one way or another. Who are these countries?

What military support do you receive from Ankara?

Azerbaijan

In 2005, Turkey signed with Azerbaijan a protocol to provide Ankara with aid in the form of a grant of 2.1 million US dollars to Baku, to be used in training Azerbaijani soldiers in the military training centers of the Turkish forces and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Turkey had provided Baku earlier in the same year with military aid worth $3.28 million, which included modern wireless communication mechanisms and devices.

In 2010, the two countries signed the Strategic Partnership and Mutual Assistance Agreement in which they pledged to exchange support "by all possible means" against aggression "by a third party".

The Turkish TB2 Bayraktar drones inflicted heavy losses on the Armenian side in the 2020 war. The Turkish company Rokistan’s MAM-L laser-guided bombs also played a leading role in the war.

Northern Cyprus

The Turkish army carried out two military operations on the island of Cyprus in 1974, which led to the deployment of 30,000 Turkish soldiers on the island, the establishment of Turkish bases, and the abortion of Greece's efforts to annex Cyprus, and then the establishment of the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" in 1983.

In view of the lack of recognition by the international community, the new republic relied entirely on Turkish support in establishing its institutions and equipping them with all necessities.

Recently, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Bayraktar has already deployed TB2 in northern Cyprus.

Somalia

Turkey concluded a framework agreement for technical and scientific training cooperation in the military field with Somalia in 2010, and the following years witnessed the signing of many agreements that culminated in 2017 with the opening of Turkey in Mogadishu, its largest military base in the world, at a cost of about $50 million, and included a military school that trains the army Somali in it.

Somali soldiers receive their training at the school as a first stage, before moving to Turkey to undergo advanced courses as a second stage.

They later join the "Al-Nusour" battalion within the Somali army.

In August 2021, Turkey provided the Somali army with 22 armored vehicles, followed by another grant in November of the same year that included military vehicles and ambulances.

Afghanistan

Turkey participated with hundreds of non-combat soldiers within the ranks of NATO forces before its withdrawal in 2021, and the work of the Turkish forces focused on training Afghan soldiers and police.

It also played a key role in maintaining security around the capital, Kabul.

The Turkish military presence in Afghanistan ended with the withdrawal of US and NATO forces after the Taliban refused to allow any foreign soldier to stay.

Libya

In December 2019, Turkey signed an agreement with the former Libyan Government of National Accord for military and security cooperation that included details of cooperation in the field of training and advice, exchange of information and defense technologies, and the provision of grants related to this field.

Yeni Şafak newspaper reported that, prior to this agreement, Turkish forces had deployed armored vehicles, intervention mechanisms and cannons on the Tripoli front, as well as special forces in Tripoli and Misurata.

After Tripoli asked Ankara to send forces, the Turkish support for the government developed significantly, as the Turkish forces provided Tripoli with direct field support and air and sea support, with the use of Turkish drones.

Ukraine

In 2015, Turkey and Ukraine signed a military cooperation protocol under which Ankara will grant $3.1 million in military aid to the Ukrainian army, allocating it to the purchase of Turkish military equipment and dual-use materials to meet the needs of the Ukrainian army.

In 2020, Kyiv received similar assistance worth $50 million to purchase weapons.

Later in the same year, Ukraine purchased Bayraktar planes from Turkey, and expressed its intention to purchase 48 other combat drones through a project to jointly produce this type of aircraft.

Iraq

An old agreement between Turkey and Iraq, signed in 1994, paved the way for the Turkish army to incur land and air incursions into the Iraqi borders to pursue elements of the PKK;

To establish Turkish military bases along the border.

The relationship developed quantitatively and qualitatively after the formation of the international coalition to combat the "Islamic State" organization, as it became the responsibility of the Turkish forces to provide training and assistance and exchange intelligence information with the Iraqi government.

In this context, the Turkish forces established the "Doberdan" camp in Bashiqa in 2015 to train Kurdish Peshmerga forces and volunteers from the National Mobilization.

This was accompanied by the provision of military aid to both the Baghdad and Erbil governments by sending several planes loaded with equipment to them, most notably two C-130 cargo planes in 2015 for Baghdad, and trucks with similar payloads for Erbil.

Lebanon

During the "Rome 2" conference, Ankara pledged to give Lebanon military equipment worth $7 million. The pledges include Turkey establishing a "model regiment" (special forces) in southern Lebanon.

In 2018, Turkey handed over to the Lebanese Army about 147 spare parts for tanks and armored personnel carriers, at a value of one million dollars, a donation in which the Turkish ambassador to Lebanon revealed at the time the "Turkish Foreign Military Assistance Program", which he said that Lebanon was included in in 2015.

Diameter

Qatar did not receive material Turkish military aid, but Ankara spent $39 million on the Tariq bin Ziyad base, which it opened in Qatar in 2016, and included regiments of Turkish soldiers sent by Ankara to support Qatar's position on the blockade imposed by Gulf countries on it.

Syria

Turkey supports the opposition’s Syrian National Army with training and equipment, and initially began arming opposition factions as part of Operation Euphrates Shield to defeat ISIS from the northern and eastern countryside of Aleppo, and later against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which is led by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) arm in Syria. It is the Democratic Union Party, especially in Ras al-Ain and Tal Abyad.

Turkey also provides training and equipment to the police forces in the areas covered by the "Euphrates Shield" and "Peace Spring" operations.

Sudan

During the Turkish president's 2017 visit to Sudan, the two countries announced the signing of military agreements related to the security of the Red Sea, but the overthrow of Omar al-Bashir's regime in 2019 apparently disrupted these agreements.

coast conglomerate

During his visit to Mauritania in 2018, the Turkish President announced his country's contribution of 5 million dollars to finance the military force formed by 5 African countries known as the "Sahel States".

These countries are Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad, and formed the joint military force to combat terrorist groups active in the Sahel region of West Africa.