{"id":9544,"date":"2019-12-16T22:37:54","date_gmt":"2019-12-16T22:37:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/uncategorized\/2019\/12\/16\/turkey-deploys-surveillance-drone-in-northern-cyprus\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T20:09:34","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T20:09:34","slug":"turkey-deploys-surveillance-drone-in-northern-cyprus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/unmanned\/2019\/12\/16\/turkey-deploys-surveillance-drone-in-northern-cyprus\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey deploys surveillance drone in northern Cyprus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ANKARA, Turkey \u2014 Turkey has dispatched a surveillance and reconnaissance drone to the breakaway north of ethnically divided island nation of Cyprus amid tensions over offshore oil and gas exploration<\/a>, Turkey\u2019s state-run media said Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Anadolu news agency said the Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2<\/a> drone took off from an airbase in Dalaman, Turkey, and touched down Monday at the airport in Gecitkala \u2014 known as Lefkoniko in Greek, on Cyprus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kudret Ozersay<\/a>, foreign minister of the self-declared Turkish Cypriot state, told reporters Sunday that the Turkish deployment would be limited to unarmed drones as there was \u201cno need\u201d for armed ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier, Turkish Cypriot Prime Minister Ersin Tatar said there was an \u201curgent need\u201d to address the security concerns of Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots in the eastern Mediterranean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In this Nov. 6 photo, graffiti reading “Your wall can not divide us” is seen at the U.N buffer zone by a fence that divides the Greek Cypriot south and the Turkish Cypriot north, in divided capital Nicosia, Cyprus. As the world commemorates 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the bullet-riddled sandstone walls of abandoned, crumbling homes and concrete machine gun nests dotting in Cyprus’ no-man’s land are a reminder of Europe’s last divided country. (Petros Karadjias\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s unclear what the drones will be specifically tasked to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cyprus Defense Minister Savvas Angelides called the move an “additional factor contributing to instability” in the region, hurting efforts aimed at reunifying the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said last week that Ankara could use its military forces to halt gas drilling in waters off Cyprus that it claims as its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cavusoglu said Turkey “has the right to prevent” any unauthorized drilling in waters that it says fall within its own continental shelf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turkey doesn\u2019t recognize Cyprus as a state and asserts that 44 percent of the island nation\u2019s exclusive economic zone as its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of the area that Turkey claims it has rights to are waters where Cyprus has exclusive economic rights and where companies including ExxonMobil, France’s Total and Italy’s Eni are licensed by the Cypriot government to jointly carry out drilling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cyprus’ government spokesman Kyriakos Koushios told state broadcaster CyBC on Sunday that Turkish warships told an Israeli research vessel to leave “disputed” waters off Cyprus last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\t