Erdogan reacted to US sanctions and promised a more powerful military industry

By Boyko Nikolov On Dec 17, 2020

ANKARA, (BM) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan commented for the first time on Washington’s sanctions regarding the purchase of Russian S-400 air defense missile systems, learned BulgarianMilitary.com.

He made his comment during an official ceremony for the opening of a new highway in Turkey. According to the Turkish president, the sanctions from Washington are aiming at destabilizing the Turkish military industry. Erdogan also said these attempts to thwart Turkey’s growing military industry would fail and only stimulate it to grow further.

As we announced on Monday (December 14th), the United States has imposed long-delayed sanctions against Turkey under US law CAASTA. This law has a single purpose – to reduce Russian weapons sales worldwide by reducing Russia’s military influence. Turkey is the first US ally against which this law is applying in practice.

What do the sanctions include? The sanctions will block joint projects and technology transfers between US companies and Turkish companies linked to a Turkish military supply agency. They also impose restrictions on loans from US financial institutions to the agency in question totaling more than $ 10 million. Besides, assets are frozen, and visa restrictions are introducing for its chairman and three other staff. According to Reuters, it is not immediately clear the impact of sanctions on third countries, such as European countries that supply weapons or defense components and work with Turkish defense companies.

Erdogan stressed that the real purpose of the sanctions imposed on his country is to make Turkey more dependent on the United States. “What will happen now? We will work twice as hard as in the past to make our defense industry independent in all aspects and to hasten projects undertaken by our Presidency of Defense Industries. We will provide even greater support to our defense industry companies,” was his reaction to US sanctions.

We remind you that the Turkish lira is currently suffering heavy losses. Despite positive signals for the Turkish economy as a whole, the local currency unit loses much of its value—the imposed US sanctions are expecting to negatively impact the Turkish currency’s importance in the coming weeks.

We remind you that the purchase of Russian S-400 systems from Ankara caused a redesign of processes, which caused Turkey and the United States to worsen their relations. Washington has expelled Turkey from the F-35 program, a joint development program for a fifth-generation fighter jet. As a result, the United States refused to supply F-35 fighters to Turkey. The US returned Turkish pilots to their country after Washington suspended their training. As a last resort, the supply of components for the production of F-35, making in Turkey, was stopped.

Washington cites for strict measures against Ankara is the incompatibility of Russian systems with NATO weapons systems. In particular, the United States worries that through the S-400, the Russians would obtain secret sensitive information about the technology used in the production of the F-35. However, Ankara has not signaled that Turkey will integrate the Russian system into NATO allies’ communication blocs. On the contrary, Turkey has repeatedly urged both countries (Russia and NATO – ed.) That the Turks do not intend to disclose any information – neither about Russian technology nor about American.

The United States has tried to stop the sale of Russian S-400 systems to Turkey. However, the problem appeared in two directions. First, the price of US Patriot air defense systems, which Washington wanted to sell to Ankara, turned out to be higher than that of the S-400. Second, Washington disagreed with Ankara’s idea of Turkey producing its missiles for the US system. This type of industrial cooperation is at odds with American policy, and Washington almost ruled such a possibility out of the equation.

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BulgarianMilitary.com
Editorial team