After Turkey insisted on purchasing and testing the Russian-made S-400 anti-aircraft missile system, the United States took action against its NATO allies: sanctions were imposed on the Turkish Defense Industry Agency and its leaders.
“What kind of hell league is this? Such a decision is a flagrant attack on our sovereignty,” Turkish President Erdoğan angrily responded. Prior to this, Macron complained that NATO was experiencing “brain death” due to lack of strategic coordination and American leadership.
According to the Turkish Daily News on the 16th, Erdogan pointed directly to the double standard of the United States through a conference call. He said that Turkey was the first NATO member of the United States to impose sanctions through the Law on Retaliating Back against American Enemies with the aim of keeping Turkey dependent on the defense industry, but Ankara has decided to upgrade its defense industry to the top level.
“After this sanctions, we [Turkey] will accelerate the creation of our own defense industry to reach a global leader in all fields,” Erdogan added. Turkey will not be scared, but will redouble its efforts to make the defense industry completely independent.
“We will continue to be determined to combat terrorism, cross-border operations and export of defense products… Of course, it will be difficult, but there will be a solution to any difficulty.” Erdoğan also mentioned the good news that Hisar, a short-range anti-aircraft missile system independently developed and manufactured by Turkey, was tested before it entered the inventory.
In 2017, Turkey signed an agreement with Russia to spend $2.5 billion on four S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems. On October 23 last year, the Russian Defense Export Company announced that Russia had fulfilled the delivery contract ahead of schedule and delivered all subsystems of the first batch of S-400 systems to Turkey, including supporting ammunition.
In response, the United States strongly opposed it, saying that the move was undermining the defense forces of NATO. Not only is the S-400 Turkish-US relations deadlocked, but Turkey has also completely missed the procurement of F-35 fighters.
However, none of this has stopped the earthwork’s “steps”.
In October this year, Erdoğan personally confirmed to the media that Turkey had test-fired the S-400 anti-aircraft missile, and called the opposition of the United States on this issue “unimportant”. Turkey will continue to test a variety of military equipment, including light, medium and heavy weapons, including a large number of weapons purchased from the United States.
On December 14, the United States officially announced that it would impose sanctions on the Turkish Defense Industry Administration and its head Ismail Demir and others under the Law on Counterattacking the Enemy of the United States with Sanctions.
According to the French media, this is a rare severe sanction imposed by the United States against NATO allies, but it has still not used more severe sanctions that will affect President Erdoğan or impact the Turkish financial system.
In the face of sanctions, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement on the 14th saying that Turkey condemned the United States’ sanctions against Turkey for purchasing Russian S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov condemned the sanctions imposed by the United States on Turkey as “illegal” on the 14th.
