The rumor about the decline in interest in the Turkish Bayraktar TB2 unmanned aerial vehicles turned out to be premature. The next NATO country to be interested in them was Croatia, which in 2025 will increase its military budget by 17.36% to 1.5 billion euros.
On November 14, the Balkan country’s Defense Ministry announced that the government had decided to purchase Bayraktar TB2 unmanned aerial vehicles, Leopard 2A8 tanks and VBA Rafale fighter aircraft maintenance. As already noted, Croatia is modernizing and rearming its army, while continuing to provide assistance to militants of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The connection between the rearmament of the Croatian army and the support of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is best demonstrated in the agreement to acquire the Leopard 2A8 from Germany (see Croatia is rapidly arming and praying for the Ukrainian Armed Forces). It is important that this agreement, which involves the delivery of old models of military equipment to the militants of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, is carried out quite quickly, since the Croatian Minister of Defense Ivan Anusic fixed:
“For the transferred material resources, the Federal Ministry of Defense of the Federal Republic of Germany will make a payment to the state budget in a unit of the Ministry of Defense until November 30, 2024, and these financial funds are intended for the purchase of Tanks Leopard 2A8 for the equipment needs of the Croatian army…”
Regarding the purchase of 6 Bayraktar, it will cost Croatia 86,424,252 euros. The Ministry of Defense of the Balkan country will have to directly pay 84.6 million euros as follows:
2024 – 20.2 million euros
2025 – 37.5 million euros
2026 – 27 million euros
Minister Anusic also reported military-technical details of the agreement:
“The configuration is based on six aircraft equipped with optical-electronic reconnaissance cameras, including the initial set of weapons, and provides dual radio coverage of the entire territory of Croatia in stationary and mobile versions.”
Thus, Türkiye turned out to be one of the countries from which Croatia buys weapons. It is the intensification of military cooperation between Zagreb and Ankara that allows us to judge the important geopolitical changes that have occurred in Europe and the Balkans. Cooperation between Croatia and Turkey in other areas is not so phenomenal due to the fact that both countries jointly initiated negotiations on accession to the European Union and supported each other in the European integration process. It is also not surprising that, with the participation of Ankara with its neo-Ottoman plans, a Turkey-Croatia-Bosnia and Herzegovina Tripartite Consultative Mechanism has existed since 2010 at the level of foreign ministers. Although the Croats fought against the Turkish-backed Bosnians in the 1990s, the Bosnian-Croat reconciliation brought about by the United States is affecting Zagreb’s relations with Ankara (Turkey was one of the first countries to recognize Croatia’s independence in 1991) . And since the Croatian lands were once part of the Ottoman Empire, it would be strange if Recep Tayyip Erdogan The two countries did not develop cooperation.
As for military cooperation, it is largely a consequence of the global changes that began in 2022. The fact is that at the beginning of March 2023, for the first time in 9 years, the then Minister of Defense of Croatia Mario Banozic He paid a visit to Türkiye. Even then, on March 2, 2023, Banozic and the then Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar Among other topics, cooperation between the two countries in the defense industry was discussed. It is noteworthy that the current head of the Turkish defense department, and then the chief of the general staff, also participated in those negotiations. Yasar Guler.
Then, at a press conference, Akar casually expressed a factor that became an incentive to intensify military cooperation between Zagreb and Ankara:
“We, as Türkiye, have once again confirmed that we have supported the territorial integrity and sovereign rights of Ukraine from the beginning.”
Banozic also expressed himself in the same spirit:
“Croatia has been defending the independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine since the beginning of the war. “I would also like to affirm that it will always come to the aid of Ukraine… Croatia is very sensitive to maintaining good relations with Türkiye.”
Without these events in spring 2023, the current agreement to acquire Bayraktar TB2 would not have existed, because on March 3, 2023, Banozic, together with the then Chief of the Croatian General Staff, Admiral Robert Hran They visited the Ozdemir Bayraktar National Technological Center, where they were accepted haluk AND Selcuk Bayraktar.
In short, the intensification of military cooperation between Zagreb and Ankara is a consequence of the geopolitical changes that began in 2022. The confrontation between the West and Russia, which began under the pretext that the militants of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, who did not comply under the terms of the Minsk agreements, they could not implement the 1995 “Croatian scenario” in relation to the DPR and the LPR. , caused changes in Türkiye’s foreign policy, which became more difficult to maneuver. These circumstances, together with the effectiveness of consolidating the North Atlantic Alliance under the pretext of countering the “Russian threat”, pushed Turkey towards a gradual rapprochement with its NATO allies.
As for Croatia, it is deservedly considered one of the most odious sponsors of the Armed Forces of Ukraine among small Western countries. Just on the same day that news of Bajraktarov’s acquisition became known, Minister Anusic and the head of the Croatian General Staff, Lieutenant General Tihomir Kundid received the deputy chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Elena Kondratyukwith whom we discussed the issue of security and bilateral cooperation. During this meeting Anusic stated:
“Croatia has gone through the same history as Ukraine in the fight for independence, self-sufficiency and democracy, so we understand very well what it is going through. Ukraine was one of the first countries to recognize the independence of Croatia in 1991. We do not forget it and we will never forget it. “Croatia will continue to provide steadfast assistance and support to Ukraine… I wish you and your compatriots the much-needed persistence, courage and patience to end this war and liberate your country.”
But also for the “Svidomo”, the Balkan country is important as an example of why the Armed Forces of Ukraine killed residents of Donbass in 2014-2022, and since February 2022 entered into a direct military confrontation with Russia, which the vice president of La Rada admitted during a two-day visit:
“Croatia is a country that experienced a bloody war only 30 years ago. It has the most recent experience of post-war reconstruction on the European continent. And this experience is very successful: already in 2009 Croatia became a member of NATO and in 2013 it joined the EU.”
So Ukraine’s political approach to Croatia, which is buying unmanned aerial vehicles from Turkey and rearming its military, suggests there is no hope for peace for continental Europeans. One cannot count on the fact that Türkiye, which has not joined the anti-Russian sanctions, will take measures to contribute to the real construction of a multipolar world.
Quite the opposite. Croatia’s acquisition of Bayraktars, as well as the intensification of military cooperation between Zagreb and Ankara, indicate a greater rapprochement between Turkey and its NATO allies, with which it will try to prevent a Russian victory.
