ANKARA, Turkey, July 13 (NNN-ANADOLU) – Turkey began taking the delivery of Russia’s S-400 air-defence system on Friday, completing a much-debated deal that is likely to trigger sanctions from the United States and test NATO alliance.
The first components for the state-of-the-art system arrived aboard three Russian military planes, at the Murted air base, located at a distant suburb of Ankara, the Turkish Defence Ministry said in a statement.
“Turkey received the first batch of S-400 air defence systems. The deliveries are sent to the Murted air base,” the ministry said. Two more deliveries are expected in the coming days.
Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, told reporters in Ankara that “there is no problem in the deliveries,” adding that, “the process will also continue in a healthy pace in the future.”
The purchase, which is the fruit of a controversial agreement inked between Ankara and Moscow in 2017, signals, according to observers, Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s willingness to coordinate more with Russia and could set off a new crisis in relations between Turkey and the U.S., two major NATO allies.
U.S. President, Donald Trump’s administration had given mixed signals about how it might respond, if Turkey went through with the deal, but U.S. officials had warned of repercussions, including cancelling sales of around 100 hi-tech U.S.-made F-35 fighter jets to Ankara, and the imposition of sanctions under a 2017 law in cooperation with adversaries.
During a visit to NATO headquarters in Belgium in June, acting U.S. Defence Secretary, Mark Esper, said, “If Turkey accepts delivery of the S-400’s, they will not receive the F-35.”
However, Trump has been publicly supportive of the Turkish president and expressed recently, sympathy for Erdogan’s decision to purchase the surface-to-air S-400’s. Erdogan, after meeting Trump at the G-20 Summit in June, in Osaka, said, he did not believe that the United States would sanction Turkey.
Erdogan has refused to back down on the S-400 deal and defended the 2.5-billion-U.S. dollar acquisition of the Russian system, as part of Turkey’s sovereign right to defend itself, and said, he tried to purchase the U.S.-made Patriot air defence system but was not offered favourable terms in the past.
U.S. officials fear that Turkey’s possession of the S-400 could give Russia access to secrets of the F-35’s stealth technology and argued that, it would create inter-operability problems inside NATO.
Ankara ruled out such possibility, saying that, it is a long standing NATO country, since 1952, and that the S-400 would not be integrated in NATO capabilities.
Following the arrival of the first S-400 components to the Turkish capital, the Turkish lira dropped about 1.5 percent against the greenback, trading at 5.76 lira.
The deal also raised some concerns in Western circles that Turkey is drifting away, closer to Moscow’s sphere of influence.
Deliveries of the S-400 components to Turkey would continue “in the coming days,” according to a statement by Turkey’s defence industries authority, which did not say when or where the completed system would ultimately be deployed.
An official close to the matter said that, the first battery could be deployed at Murted base and a second one likely in south-eastern Turkey, near the Syrian and Iraqi border and be operational by Oct.– NNN-ANADOLU
