Afrinpost
The Canadian disarmament group, “Ploughshares”, recently accused the Canadian company, “Wescam”, the manufacture of photographic technologies, of violating international humanitarian law as a result of arms deals with the Turkish army.
This came in a report issued by the group last Tuesday under the title “Killer Optics”, which indicated that WESCAM technologies are often used by various armies around the world.
The report added that the Turkish army is the second largest customer of the company after the United States, since 2017.
The report indicated that Turkey has installed photoelectric and infrared sensors from the “Wescam” industry on drones that participated in the attacks in the southeast of the country and in Syria, Iraq and Libya.
The Turkish Kale-Baykar Akinci and Bayraktar TB-2 drones use “WESCAM” technology for their cameras, according to the report.
The report said that “Canada had joined the United Kingdom, Germany and France in the arms embargo on Turkey in October 2019 in response to the recent Turkish invasion of Syria.”
He added that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had a personal phone call with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and pressed to cancel the freeze on military exports to Turkey.
The report indicated that the Canadian government granted an exception to export WESCAM technology, without explaining the reasons.
The report confirms that Turkey used “WESCAM” technology in the attack on Afrin in 2018, and in the attack on Serê Kaniyê and Tel Abyad in late 2019.
The Turkish attack on Afrin, Serê Kaniyê, and Tal Abyad had resulted in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Syrian civilians, while human rights reports accused Turkey of implementing a demographic change scheme in it.
The report of the International Commission of Inquiry on Syria recently accused the Turkish opposition factions of “committing war crimes in Afrin and Sere Kaniye, and… razing and looting archaeological sites on the UNESCO list.”
The Canadian report included multiple pictures of the Turkish attacks on Syria, showing the graphic overlay of “WESCAM”.
The report said that the exports of WESCAM systems to Turkey increased significantly despite Canada’s accession to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) in 2019.
The aforementioned treaty is the first binding framework aimed at regulating international trade and the transfer of arms, while reducing the human suffering caused by its proliferation, according to “Ploughshares”.
Source: North-Press Agency
