Özgür Özel, the leader of Turkey’s main opposition party, has said President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s office waited two hours before authorizing the shooting down of an unmanned aircraft that approached Turkish airspace from the Black Sea earlier this month, a claim the presidency rejected as disinformation.
Özel, chairman of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), made the allegation in an interview with the Cumhuriyet newspaper published on Sunday.
He said the drone was detected about 50 kilometers from land and was tracked for two hours and five minutes before it was brought down. Özel said the aircraft could have been shot down over the water.
“Right now, the authority to shoot down an aircraft rests with Erdoğan,” Özel said. “For two hours, no instructions came from Erdoğan. If that’s not the case, then let them say so.”
Özel also claimed that the detection and early response involved NATO command structures. He said a NATO facility in Spain detected the drone through NATO radars in Turkey; that NATO command ordered F-16s to take off from air bases in Konya and Eskişehir; and that control was then handed over to a Turkish command center once the drone entered Turkish airspace. He said the first F-16s ran low on fuel and were replaced by aircraft that took off from İncirlik Air Base, which he said later shot down the drone.
The Turkish presidency’s Directorate of Communications issued a written statement on Sunday denying the claim that officials were waiting for Erdoğan’s instructions or delayed action because of concerns over the origin of the drone.
The directorate said a drone approaching Turkish airspace from the Black Sea on December 15 was tracked by F-16s and was shot down after “peacetime procedures” were completed, in a controlled operation in a safe area.
It said the authority to shoot down aircraft under Turkey’s Rules of Engagement Directive rests with the Turkish General Staff and that on the day of the incident the authority was transferred “without delay” to the Turkish Air Force Command.
Turkey’s defense ministry has described the drone as an unmanned aerial vehicle that was “out of control” and said it was shot down outside a populated area.
The ministry has not publicly identified the origin of that drone. It has said the aircraft broke into fragments that scattered, complicating efforts to determine what it was and where it came from.
The incident added to concern in Turkey about spillover from the Russia-Ukraine conflict into the Black Sea region.
Days later, Turkey’s interior ministry said a damaged drone found in Kocaeli province was assessed to be a Russian-made Orlan 10 reconnaissance drone and that an investigation was underway.
Turkey has said it warned both Russia and Ukraine to act with care as regards Black Sea security following the December 15 incident.