The Turkish Defense Ministry has denied claims that the US and Turkey were working on a deal aimed at ensuring Turkey’s return to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program in exchange for the transfer of control of a Russian S-400 missile defense system to the US at İncirlik Airbase in southern Turkey, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
The Greek Kathimerini newspaper reported earlier this week that talks on the alleged deal, proposed by the US to Turkey over the summer, were in the final stages.
“News reports by third countries on this matter aimed at perception management should not be heeded and approached cautiously. There is no change in the stance of the both countries regarding S-400s and the F-35 [program],” Rear Adm. Zeki Aktürk, the ministry’s spokesman, said at a press briefing on Thursday.
Although Turkey joined the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program in 2007 and was one of the partner countries in the program along with other NATO allies, it was removed by Washington in 2019 in protest of the Turkish government’s purchase of the Russian S-400s, which Washington said posed a risk to its fifth-generation warplanes and NATO’s broader defense systems.
According to Kathimerini, the United States submitted a detailed proposal to Turkey that would allow it to keep the missiles on its territory but essentially transfer their control to the United States.
As part of the discussions, senior US officials have reportedly floated a proposal to transfer the Russian system to the US-controlled part of İncirlik Airbase in southern Adana province. The proposal would reportedly not put Turkey in a difficult situation since neither the terms of its contract with Russia nor any binding clauses would be violated.
İncirlik is home to the US Air Force’s 39th Air Base Wing.
Aktürk also said Turkey thinks it is against the spirit of an alliance when allies impose sanctions on each other, calling for all sanctions imposed on Turkey by its allies to be removed.
He was referring to the imposition of sanctions by Washington in December 2020 on Turkey’s military procurement agency as punishment for its purchase of the S-400 under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, or CAATSA, which mandates penalties for transactions deemed harmful to US interests.
Despite warnings from the United States and other NATO allies, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan brokered the deal worth $2.5 billion with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the S-400 missile system in 2017.
In an attempt to modernize its aging air force, Turkey’s focus turned to buying F-16s after it was ousted from the F-35 program.
The US government on January 26 approved a $23 billion deal to sell F-16 fighter jets to Turkey, after Ankara ratified Sweden’s NATO membership.
The sale to Turkey includes 40 Lockheed Martin F-16s and equipment to modernize 79 of its existing F-16 fleet.