Ankara expects expects Washington to remove barriers to the defense industry; Ankara-Washington cooperation in this area lags behind its potential, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
Turkey’s cooperation with the United States in the defense industry has “unfortunately fallen far short of its potential” in recent years due to various restrictions, he said.
“We hope that we have opened a new page with the F-16 (fighter jet) modernization project and expect the export barriers in this area to be permanently removed,” Erdogan also said, as quoted by Turkish state news agency Anadolu.
In 2017, Turkey signed a contract with Russia for the supply of a regimental set of S-400 air defense system, which it received in the summer-fall of 2019. At the same time, the US demanded that Ankara abandon Russian systems in favor of Patriot, but this was not agreed upon. As punishment, Washington excluded Turkey from the program for the supply of the latest F-35 fighters and imposed sanctions on the heads of the defense industry under the CAATSA Act (Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions). The United States canceled the joint memorandum on the F-35 with Turkey, signing it with the seven remaining partners in the F-35 project — the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Australia, Denmark, Canada and Norway.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan subsequently announced a US offer to buy other fighters, not fifth-generation, but fourth-generation — the F-16s. In April last year, then-Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Ankara would get back the money paid for the purchase of the F-35 from the US.
