Tajikistan, Orders Bayraktar Drones in Face-off Against Kyrgyzstan Which Owns the Same UAVs

Tajikistan is reportedly buying Bayraktar TB2 unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV) amid its border disputes with neighboring Kyrgyzstan, which also has some of these UCAVs on order.

There is no official statement from Baykar, the Turkish company that manufactures the drone or Tajikistan; while Kyrgyzstan has confirmed the purchase.

Acting Kyrgyz Minister of Foreign Affairs Zheenbek Kulubaev reportedly told Mirlan Samyikozho, a Kyrgyz lawmaker, that the Dushanbe administration in neighboring Tajikistan has indeed purchased the combat drones.

Last week, Turkey's Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and his Tajik counterpart Col. Gen. Sherali Mirzo signed a framework agreement on military cooperation between the two countries.

More than a third of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan’s border is disputed, with the area surrounding the Tajik enclave of Vorukh, a regular flashpoint over territorial claims and access to water. In 2022, before a cease-fire was agreed upon, clashes swept the border towns of the two countries resulting in deaths, injuries and the evacuation of thousands of people. This fighting was the heaviest along their disputed border since the countries gained post-Soviet independence.