Canadian targeting systems used by Azeris against Armenians: Report

A Turkish-made military drone shot down by Armenia in the conflict with Azerbaijan was equipped with Canadian imaging and targeting systems, Canadian daily The Globe and Mail, which photographed the gear, said on Friday.

Canada suspended arms exports to Turkey in early October as it investigates the possible diversion of restricted Canadian military equipment to Azerbaijan.

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Ankara is backing its longtime ally Azerbaijan in fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian province that broke away from Azerbaijan in a bitterly fought war in the 1990s.

Photos of parts of the downed drone were taken Thursday by a photographer from the Canadian newspaper dispatched to an Armenian military complex.

Arms exports researcher Kelsey Gallagher was quoted by the daily as saying the photos clearly show an MX-15D imaging and targeting device made by Canadian company L3Harris Wescam.

“While we know this is a Wescam sensor just by looking at the turret itself, the inclusion of ‘CMX-15D’ on the serial code of the base plate makes it irrefutable this is Canadian-made hardware,” he said.

“The same base plate is also branded with ‘Baykar,’ the manufacturer of the Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drone.”

Turkey blasted Ottawa over its suspension of arms shipments to a NATO ally.

Canadian Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne has expressed concern about civilian casualties in Nagorno-Karabakh clashes while calling for a “negotiated solution to the conflict.”

His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on The Globe and Mail’s findings.

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