All 20 personnel on board a Türkish military cargo plane that crashed in Georgia were killed, Türkiye's defence minister announced on Wednesday.
The C-130 plane was flying from Ganja, Azerbaijan to Türkiye when it crashed in Georgia’s Sighnaghi municipality, close to the Azerbaijani border. The cause of the crash is being investigated.
The military personnel were part of a unit that had travelled to Azerbaijan to take part in that country's Victory Day celebrations on Saturday, Türkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said. The event marked Azerbaijan's 2020 military success over Armenia for control of the Karabakh region, known internationally as Nagorno-Karabakh, a conflict that had lasted nearly four decades.
A 46-member Türkish accident investigation team reached the crash site and was inspecting the wreckage of the plane, in coordination with the Georgian authorities.
Erdoğan said the plane's flight data recorder has been recovered and inspections were underway to determine the cause of the crash.
Authorities have so far recovered the remains of 19 of the victims and efforts were continuing to locate one other body, Erdoğan added.
The wreckage was spread across a plain that includes farmland and is surrounded by hills, Türkish private broadcaster NTV reported from the site. Debris from the aircraft was scattered across multiple locations, the report said.
"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," Defence Minister Yaşar Güler said in a message posted on X, together with photographs of the military personnel that were killed.
Yesterday, Türkiye’s state-run Anadolu Agency quoted the Georgian aviation authority as saying that contact with the plane was lost a few minutes after it entered Georgia’s airspace. The plane had not issued a distress signal, it said.
C-130 military cargo planes are widely used by Türkiye’s armed forces for transporting personnel and handling logistical operations.
Türkiye and Azerbaijan maintain close military cooperation.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and Georgian Foreign Minister Maka Botchorishvili extended their condolences to their Türkish counterparts over the crash.
"We are deeply shocked," Aliyev said in a message, according to the Anadolu Agency.
US Ambassador to Türkiye Tom Barrack offered his condolences and affirmed Washington's solidarity with Ankara. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte also extended his sympathies, honoured the military personnel who were killed, and thanked all NATO personnel for their service.
There was no information on funeral arrangements or when the remains would be returned to Türkiye.
Sozcu newspaper said the aircraft belonged to the 12th Air Base Command in Kayseri, central Türkiye. It had departed Kayseri, flown to Azerbaijan to pick up personnel in Ganja, and was en route to Merzifon, in northern Türkiye.
The plane was manufactured in 1968 and initially served in Saudi Arabia. It was added to the Türkish Armed Forces inventory in 2010, Sozcu reported.
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