Communications authorities and a senior ruling party official have rejected claims by opposition leader Özgür Özel that the military delayed shooting down a stray drone earlier this month while awaiting instructions from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
"Claims that the UAV was shot down late because instructions were awaited from our president or because its origin caused concern are blatant disinformation," the Communications Directorate said in a written statement dated Dec. 28.
According to local media, the drone was downed on Dec. 15 in an area between the capital Ankara’s Elmadağ district and the neighboring province of Çankırı. Authorities have not announced the origin of the aircraft.
Under the rules of engagement currently in force, the authority to order a shootdown rests with the General Staff, the statement said. “The authority was transferred from the General Staff to the Air Force Command as soon as the UAV was detected,” it added.
"These speculative statements, consisting of incomplete and incorrect information and inconsistent with the facts, are malicious statements aimed at misleading our people and undermining confidence in our state."
Özel, chair of the main opposition Republican People’s Party, claimed the drone was detected by NATO radars some 50 kilometers from land and that F-16 fighter jets scrambled from the central provinces of Konya and Eskişehir. The aircraft was only shot down by F-16s from the İncirlik air base in Türkiye's south after a two-hour pursuit, he told daily Cumhuriyet.
Meanwhile, ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) spokesman Ömer Çelik also criticized Özel, describing the CHP as a “center for producing disinformation.”
“Özgür Özel’s claims, which no one outside the CHP headquarters takes seriously, only add to the pages of a poor political record,” Çelik said via X on Dec. 28. “In the end, the CHP leader’s partnership with ‘false politics’ has been proven once again.”
The incident followed a series of security alerts in the region linked to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. A Turkish vessel was damaged on Dec. 12 in a Russian air strike near the Ukrainian port city of Odesa, just hours after Erdoğan spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Turkish leader earlier complained of a "worrying escalation" in the Black Sea, after attacks claimed by Ukraine on tankers linked to Russia off the Turkish coast.
Turkish authorities said on Dec. 2 that a tanker sailing from Russia to Georgia carrying sunflower oil “reported that it was attacked 80 nautical miles off our coast” earlier that morning.
