The political dimension of drone warfare:The use of Turkish drones in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Summary
After a cease fire of 25 years, new clashes occurred between Armenia and Azerbaijan during the
Second Karabakh War in September 2020. These clashes proved to be more violent and intense
compared with earlier battles, due to the increased military support that Turkey provided to Azerbaijan
in the form of Turkish manufactured drones. This development came as a surprise, as Turkey had
refrained itself from intervening in this conflict for the past 25 years. It leads to questions about why
Turkey decided to intervene after those 25 years. A comparative analysis between earlier cases of
Turkey’s drone warfare indicate that Turkey’s foreign policy has changed from being cautious and
western oriented, to assertive and focused on hard power projection.
By the use of the multiple hierarchy model in combination with regional security complex
theory, this thesis tries to explain the motivations behind this change in foreign policy by the Turkish
government. In doing so, Turkey’s relationship with both Western organisations as the Russian
Federation will be examined in relation to Nagorno-Karabakh. This form of historical analysis
combined with primary source analysis, will illustrate how Turkey’s intervention using drones can be
explained through security dynamics in the region and power relations with Russia. Consequently.
Turkey’s new foreign policy indicates why it is perceived as a growing drone power and how its
strategic use of these drones demonstrates the new future of drone warfare.