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Nov 6, 2017 — 18:05 — Update: 18:45
A retired Turkish general has claimed that the chances of
NATO member Turkey actually going ahead with the purchase of Russia's advanced
S-400 anti-aircraft missile system were “even less than 10 percent.”
Haldun Solmazturk told Chinese news service Xinhua Nov. 2
that he did not rate the prospect of the acquisition being completed even as on
the same day the CEO of Russia's Rostec state corporation, Sergey Chemezov,
told TASS that the deal to sell the hardware to Turkey had been arranged at
more than $2 billion in value.
Back in September, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
announced that Ankara had signed an agreement to purchase the missile system
from Russia and had already made a down payment. And last month, Erdogan said
that Turkey was also interested in acquiring the S-500 surface-to-air missile
system from Russia.
Hasan Koni, a professor of public international law at
Istanbul Kultur University, meanwhile, said that the US sanctions currently
faced by Russian companies may negatively affect Turkey's final decision on
acquiring the S-400. He added that Ankara may back out by citing Russian
unwillingness to transfer the technology as a pretext.
According to Koni, the US might even block delivery of
newly developed F-35 jets to Turkey if the S-400 deal was finalized.
A top NATO general in late October warned that Turkey
that it could face “necessary consequences” if it goes ahead and buys the
S-400.
“The principal of sovereignty obviously exists in the
acquisition of defense equipment, but the same way that nations are sovereign
in making their decision, they are also sovereign in facing the consequences of
that decision,” Czech general Petr Pavel, chairman of the NATO Military
Committee, told reporters.
On Sept. 22, after a meeting in Washington, DC between
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US counterpart Donald Trump, The
Washington Post published an opinion piece entitled “Trump may have to sanction
his Turkish president best buddy.”
It noted that if Turkey goes through with the S-400
transaction in light of its rapprochement with Moscow, then, according to the
Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, which Trump
begrudgingly signed into law in August, the United States must sanction any
foreign entity that engages in significant transactions with the Russian
Federation’s defence and intelligence sectors.
Pavel, who met a group of reporters hosted by the Defense
Writers Group, pointed out the difficulty that the Russian missile defense
system cannot be integrated with Nato systems.
Erdogan has blamed NATO countries for failing to propose
a viable alternative to the long-range Russian missile air defense system, but
NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said early in October that the Turkish
president was talking to Paris and Rome about similar hardware.
“He told me that Turkey is in dialogue with France and
Italy on possible delivery of air defense systems from them... on top of the
S-400,” Stoltenberg told Reuters.
In 2013, Turkey started talks with China Precision
Machinery Import and Export Corp (CPMIEC) on buying a missile defense system.
Eventually, however, it opted not to sign the final deal after NATO allies
expressed concern over Ankara’s plans to buy it, citing security and
compatibility problems.
Ankara next turned to Russia to buy the anti-aircraft
defense hardware when in 2015 it canceled the controversial deal with the
Chinese company.
Original post: themoscowtimes.com
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