The newly released documents of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development of the Canadian House of Commons have revealed that Turkey applied for WESCAM gear permits that are bound to Azerbaijan, Ahval News reported on Tuesday.
The documents released to a Parliamentary committee showed how Canadian-made air-strike targeting gear ended up in the 2020 Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, explicitly mentioning the Azerbaijani Airforce as the end-user of the product. "The Canadian government has a moral duty to categorically deny these permits and send a clear message to Ankara and Baku that Canada will not be complicit in their crimes against humanity," the report by Armenian National Committee of Canada (ANCC) said.
Canada revoked the export of sophisticated Canadian drone technology to Turkey when reports surfaced proving that the Turkish drones were used against Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh. Canada issued export permits last May for the delivery of seven MX-15D air-strike targeting systems made by L3Harris Wescam to Turkish drone-maker Baykar despite an arms embargo in place since late 2019 that prohibited the export of most categories of military gear to Turkish customers.
L3Harris Wescam is a Canadian company specializing in the production of gyro-stabilized, EO-IR imaging systems. Wescam Inc. is a subsidiary of L3Harris Technologies. Last year in October Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan urged all countries to suspend exports of military technology to Turkey after defence officials said they found high-tech Canadian components on a downed Turkish drone during the Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Armenian officials say the Bayraktar TB2 surveillance and attack drone was equipped with a camera and targeting acquisition system manufactured by L3 Harris WESCAM, located in Burlington, Ontario.
