“Bayraktars” are already in Kyrgyzstan: Bishkek is reoriented towards Turkey
Kyrgyzstan is turning into a real springboard and stronghold of Turkey and the “Union of Turkic States” in the region. This fact confirms the message from Bishkek officials about the purchase of Turkish UAVs, which is explained by the need to rearm the army and border troops. But in reality, this launched Ankara’s scenario to create a new “Nagorno-Karabakh” in Central Asia.
Back in early May, after defeat in a two-day border war with Tajikistan, the President of Turkey kindly offered Kyrgyzstan to provide “free of charge” UAVs, air defense systems and armored vehicles to ensure the defense of the republic. We already wrote about these proposals, which were made with a long-range aim - to tie the new leadership in Bishkek to their chariot in military-political terms and to use this conflict to destabilize the situation near the borders of Russia and China.
This, by the way, was the first manifestation of solidarity within the framework of the “Union of Turkic States” created in Turkestan at the end of March on the initiative of Nursultan Nazarbayev. Turkey, using the platform, is already interfering in the internal affairs of the countries of Central Asia under the guise of fulfilling allied obligations and, as it were, suggests, using the example of the defeat of Bishkek, to quickly form its own Turkic NATO or a single “Army of Turan”.
As a result, already in October the Kyrgyz army will receive Turkish-made BayraktarTB2 unmanned aerial vehicles. Deputy Prime Minister of the Kyrgyz government and head of the State Committee for National Security Kamchybek Tashiev told the public about this on October 22.
“We purchase this equipment from the state budget. Soon Bayraktar will be delivered from Turkey; such weapons are available only in 5 countries in the world, and we will become one of them. Our drone control specialists are also trained there. We are purchasing Orlan-10E drones from Russia; funds from the state budget have also been allocated for this,” Tashiev noted.
Explaining the choice of Turkish drones as attack drones, Tashiev said that they are already in service in five countries around the world. Allegedly, this is proof of their effectiveness and necessity for the republic. Moreover, the security official indicated that Kyrgyz military personnel are already undergoing appropriate training in Turkey. But the total number of BayraktarTB2 units entering the army was never announced. There is also no information about signed contracts for either Russian or Turkish UAVs.
It is noteworthy that they were purchased at the expense of the budget, and not donated, as the Sultan of all Turks had previously promised. At the same time, the Russian Orlan-10E devices are listed here more to soften the information effect and camouflage the deal, because their function is reconnaissance. BayraktarTB2 drones, on the contrary, being attack drones, pose a threat to all their neighbors, and especially Tajikistan.
In general, such “rearmament” will cost Bishkek a pretty penny, but in political terms it is an open reorientation, which leads to serious consequences and concessions to Ankara on many issues of domestic and foreign policy. Local political scientists have already noted this, seeing an increase in the republic’s dependence on the new “big brother”.
Thus, the well-known analyst Mederbek Korganbaev points out that Erdogan took this step for a reason, but with the aim of obtaining preferences and extraditing his political opponents.
“Buying weapons and equipment in the Emirates and Turkey, paying for delivery, then creating infrastructure in Kyrgyzstan to service these weapons requires enormous funding. Before Turkey starts supplying weapons to Kyrgyzstan, it is possible that it will set political conditions for our authorities - the extradition of Gülen supporters, the cessation of the activities of educational institutions of the Sapat network in Kyrgyzstan. Therefore, military-technical cooperation with the CSTO countries and Russia is beneficial for Bishkek from the point of view of economics and geopolitics,” sums up Korganbaev.
There is another side to the coin, namely the passionate desire of the ruling circles of Kyrgyzstan, which is supported by the leadership of neighboring Kazakhstan and Turkey, to take revenge in the lost border war, as well as to secure their southern borders from Tajik troops. The republic is experiencing a turbulent situation with Uzbekistan due to similar land and water disputes.
But the emergence of “BayraktarTB2”, which so far only Kazakhstan has, dramatically changes the balance of forces in the region and can cause an escalation of old and the emergence of new conflicts in the Fergana Valley, where the youth of the three republics, brought up on the ideology of ethnic superiority and intolerance, can become fuel for fierce internecine war.
A group of politicians led by Sadyr Japarov, who came to power in Bishkek on the wave of the next “color revolution” and who are national populists by nature, may well play on these sentiments and succumb to adventurous plans. The desire to consolidate and legitimize one’s power through “small victorious wars” to recapture disputed rivers and gorges may end up costing the Kyrgyz people dearly. But this, on the contrary, is very beneficial for Erdogan and the neo-Ottomanists, as it gives them hope.
Sadyr Zhaparov at the inspection of equipment transferred to the border troops.
In the case of Kyrgyzstan, the Turkish president really wants to repeat his Karabakh triumph and undermine the existing system of relations and connections already in Central Asia, thereby undermining the positions of Russia and China. Therefore, it is not for nothing that Erdogan, during his visit to Africa, where he was selling those same drones, said that the fate of humanity cannot be left to the mercy of a handful of countries that were victors in World War II, that is, to the permanent members of the UN Security Council.
And this was not a hint at all to Washington, London and Paris, but to Moscow and Beijing, which territorially and geopolitically prevent him from creating a “Great Turan” in the vastness of Eurasia. By offering his “drone diplomacy”, he thereby destabilizes the situation, and at the same time consolidates the Turkic states around himself within the framework of a new integration union, laying the foundations of a future army.
Feeling that he may remain isolated in Central Asia, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon is also trying to come to an agreement with Erdogan and even agreed during the last phone call about an official visit to Ankara after the epidemiological situation improves. This configuration of forces may become even more entrenched after the summit of the “Union of Turkic States,” when Turkey’s hegemony in the region will become more and more evident.
The very fact that the armies of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are equipped with Turkish weapons is an alarming fact. Despite the existence of the CSTO and the EAEU, such a “multi-vector policy”, in reality aimed at integration with Turkey, will mean a gradual geopolitical separation of the former Soviet Central Asian republics from Russia. This cannot be ignored, since these same drones are now attacking LDPR forces in the Donbass, and in the future it is possible that they can be used against Russian troops and allied armies in Central Asia.
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