Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has reiterated that his country will not succumb to US threats, urging Ankara to abandon Russian S-400 air defense systems.
“We have taken steps (to buy American fighter jets – ed.) for the F-35, and you are threatening us and demanding that we return the S-400 to Russia. But we are not a tribal state, we are Turkey,” Erdogan said in Malatya, Turkey. The speech was broadcast on Erdogan’s Twitter page.
In mid-July 2019, deliveries of Russia’s latest S-400 air defense systems began, which caused a crisis in Turkey’s relations with the United States. Washington has demanded that the deal be scrapped, in exchange for US Patriot systems, threatening to delay or even cancel the sale of the latest F-35 fighter jets to Turkey, as well as impose sanctions under the CAATSA (Sanctions Against America Opponents) Act. Ankara refused to make concessions and continued negotiations on an additional batch of S-400s.
