Ever since the advent of aviation, supremacy in airspace has been one of the main assets of any state or occupying power in dealing with rebel masses, guerillas and other social movements. With rare historical exceptions, when the guerrilla movements themselves managed to establish their own air capabilities, like the Yugoslav partisans, and impose themselves in that field, until today, it has remained a means of great destructive power, the potential of which was most often used for the purpose of conquest and deepening slavery, just like now in Palestine and Kurdistan. These very movements have shown today that the air is no longer untouchable.
Yemen/Palestine
In the framework of the war between Yemen and the Coalition of Western countries, which is being waged in support of the Palestinian resistance, fighters from Yemen have more than once astonished Western “experts” with sophisticated and coordinated attacks, which were previously thought to be the capabilities of only highly trained armies with enviable technological support. The news that an American drone had been shot down over the Red Sea came out like a bolt from the blue, followed by another one. And one more. By June, the Houthis managed to shoot down at least 5 American drones of the MQ-9 Reaper type, with locally produced air defense equipment, and another one was shot down by certain militant groups from Iraq – a total of 6. In addition to the constant targeting of ships in the Red Sea, and then the Indian Ocean, during which several missiles flew in the direction of the American aircraft carrier “Eisenhower”, which led to its withdrawal from that zone. The seemingly modest capabilities of the Houthis managed to bring American, British and French forces to a standstill.
Kurdistan
The parallel between the Palestinian and Kurdish struggle exists here as well. For years, the Turkish army carried out its attacks with great reliance on drones of great destructive power, which, especially in the inaccessible mountains of Northern Kurdistan, were more than necessary to deal with extremely capable Kurdish guerrillas.
However, the guerrilla air defense made sure that the intensification of Turkish air attacks did not become a kind of monologue. Despite the fact that there is no indication of the exact type of system, the relatively available footage of Turkish drone strikes indicates that it is a similar system, as in the case of Yemen, which according to the HPG, the armed wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (KWP). established an equilibrium with the Turkish Air Force. That it is not empty propaganda, it showed a lot of recordings of both the hits themselves and the remains of different types of BPLs.
According to the guerilla side, 15 Turkish drones have been shot down since February, including drones of the Bayraktar (6), Akinci (2), Anka (5) and Aksungur (2) types.