Turkey, girding for the worst despite encouraging messages from US President Donald Trump, has stockpiled crucial spare parts for US-made weapons in case the US Congress sanctions it over a contentious Russian missile purchase.
It is unclear when the stockpiling decision was first taken, but Turkish officials have said that the preparations were made in anticipation of possible US embargoes.
The US has been threatening sanctions against Turkey since last year, after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan decided to buy the Russian S-400 missile-defense system.
Still haunted by a crippling US arms embargo half a century ago, Turkey’s military has been amassing parts for F-16 jets and other military hardware, according to two Turkish officials familiar with their country’s defense strategy.
Relations between the two countries deteriorated over the course of the Syrian civil war, when the US armed a Kurdish militia that Turkey views as a terrorist group, and in the aftermath of a 2016 coup attempt against Erdogan that his government blames on a Turkish imam residing in the US.
NATO member Turkey is determined to acquire ballistic missile technology and aims to coproduce the next generation of the S-400, the officials added.
Erdogan said that his country would take delivery of the S-400 within days.
“The first batch of S-400s will be delivered in a week or 10 days,” the Haberturk newspaper quoted him as saying in a report on Monday.
The US argues that the pivot to Moscow could allow Russia to collect critical intelligence that would weaken NATO and compromise the US F-35 stealth fighter, which Turkish companies are helping to build.
Yet, while the US Congress is drawing up potential sanctions plans, Trump has cast Turkey as a victim in the saga.
At the G20 meeting in Japan on Saturday, Trump said that Erdogan was treated unfairly by former US President Barack Obama’s administration.
However, US Representative and House Committee on Foreign Affairs chairman Eliot Engel on Monday said that Erdogan “needs to stop playing games and choose between the West or Russia.”
A resolution submitted to the US House of Representatives seeking sanctions against Turkey might hold a clue as to the focus of Turkey’s parts-buying spree.
“In addition to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, Turkish defense acquisition programs that could be affected by sanctions include the Patriot air and missile defense system, CH-47F Chinook heavy lift helicopter, UH-60 Black Hawk utility helicopter and F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft,” the resolution says.
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