Twenty-five U.S. Representatives have joined Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) and Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) in a bipartisan call upon the State Department to suspend export licenses for U.S. drone technology to Turkey, pending an official investigation into the destabilizing role of Turkey’s drone programs in the Caucasus, South Asia, the Eastern Mediterranean, and around the globe, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

Turkish Bayraktar drones deployed by Azerbaijan against Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) last fall were discovered to contain at least 10 parts manufactured in the United States, or by firms with subsidiaries or affiliates in the United States.

In a bipartisan letter sent last week to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the twenty-seven U.S. Representatives asked him to issue a report on the ramifications of Turkey’s drone industry, with special attention to whether they include U.S. technologies that violate U.S. sanctions. “Over the last year, Turkish drones have been deployed by Azerbaijan against Armenian civilians in Artsakh, Syria; against Kurdish forces that have partnered with the U.S. in the war against ISIS; and in Libya’s civil war,” states the letter which cites battlefield evidence from Artsakh confirming the use of U.S. technology in Turkey’s Bayraktar drones deployed by Azerbaijan against Armenians.