Turkey slams Canada’s decision to suspend arms sales

Turkey on Tuesday slammed Canada's decision to suspend arms exports to the country, accusing Ottawa of "double standards."

Canada's announcement on Monday comes as it investigates the alleged use of Turkey's military technologies in the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict.

"We expect Canada to pursue a policy far from double standards and to act without influence from anti-Turkey circles in the country," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

"While Canada does not see harm in exporting arms to countries militarily involved in the Yemen crisis... and presents the sales as a contribution to regional security, there cannot be any other explanation for its prevention of arms exports to its NATO ally," it added.

Read also: How the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict could spiral into a proxy war

Ottawa announced in October 2019 a freeze on the issuing of export permits for military shipments to Turkey, after its incursions against Kurdish militia forces in Syria characterised as "terrorists" by Ankara. The freeze was lifted in May.

Turkey is backing its longtime ally Azerbaijan in the fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian province that broke away from Azerbaijan in a bitterly fought war in the 1990s.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a simmering conflict for decades over the region and the latest fighting has killed at least 260 people.

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