All 20 Turkish military personnel aboard a C-130 cargo plane that crashed in eastern Georgia have been confirmed dead, Turkey’s Defense Minister Yasar Guler announced Wednesday.
The aircraft had taken off from Ganja, Azerbaijan, and was en route to Turkey when it went down Tuesday in Sighnaghi municipality, close to the Azerbaijani border. Authorities said the cause of the crash remains under investigation.
A Turkish accident investigation team arrived at the crash site early Wednesday and began inspecting the wreckage in coordination with Georgian authorities, according to a statement from Turkey’s National Defense Ministry. Reports from Turkish broadcaster NTV described the wreckage scattered across farmland surrounded by hills, with debris found in several locations.
“Our heroic comrades-in-arms were martyred on November 11, 2025, when our C-130 military cargo plane, which had taken off from Azerbaijan en route to our country, crashed near the Georgia-Azerbaijan border,” Minister Guler said in a message on X (formerly Twitter), sharing photos of the fallen personnel.
The Georgian Civil Aviation Authority said that communication with the aircraft was lost shortly after it entered Georgian airspace, and the plane did not issue a distress signal before disappearing from radar.
The C-130E Hercules, a four-engine tactical airlifter, is widely used by the Turkish Armed Forces for transporting troops and carrying out logistical operations. The crash marks one of Turkey’s deadliest military aviation accidents in recent years.
Turkey and Azerbaijan maintain close defense cooperation, and the crash occurred just days after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and top officials attended Azerbaijan’s Victory Day celebrations in Baku on November 8, commemorating Azerbaijan’s 2020 military victory over Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh. It remains unclear whether the soldiers aboard the aircraft had participated in the ceremonies.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and Georgian Foreign Minister Maka Botchorishvili expressed condolences to Turkey, while U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte also offered sympathies, honoring the fallen servicemen and reaffirming solidarity with Ankara.
“We are deeply shocked by the news of the loss of life of our soldiers in the accident that occurred on Georgian soil,” Aliyev said, according to the Anadolu Agency.
A search and recovery operation remains underway, involving Azerbaijani and Georgian emergency teams, as authorities work to recover all remains and investigate the cause of the disaster. Funeral arrangements for the fallen soldiers have not yet been announced.
AP/euronews.com
