Serbia Will No Longer Purchase Bayraktar Drones from Turkey, Vucic

Serbia's government has decided to refrain from purchasing Bayraktar drones from Turkey after the Turks supplied unmanned aerial vehicles to security forces in Kosovo. This information was disclosed by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic during an interview on TV Pink. His statements were quoted by RIA Novosti.

The self-proclaimed Kosovo does not have its own army according to UN Security Council Resolution 1244. With the material support from NATO, the Pristina authorities are modernizing and training the lightly armed Kosovo Security Forces to transform them into fully armed military units, which has drawn protests from Serbian authorities. The law regarding the Kosovo Security Forces, which was approved in December 2018, envisages a personnel of 5,000 fighters.

“The Turks have seriously armed the Kosovo Security Forces, which cannot exist under international law... the Turks have given them anti-tank missiles, howitzers, Bayraktars. The Kosovo Security Forces now have these. They have not flown the Bayraktars yet; NATO has not allowed it,” noted the Serbian president.

He emphasized that Serbia has rejected the purchase of Bayraktar drones because the Turks have provided those drones to Pristina. “We will not cooperate with them. Recently, we received Chinese CH-90 drones and continue to acquire them. In five months, we will receive 1,000 kamikaze drones that we ordered from the Middle East,” added Vucic.

The government of Kosovo approved a defense strategy at the end of March, according to which the Kosovo Security Forces will operate throughout the entire territory of the region. Previously, under agreements brokered by the EU, Kosovo's special police units cannot enter municipalities populated by Serbs in the north without special permission, which also requires the authorization of the NATO contingent command (KFOR).