George you are welcome.
The delivery of F-35’s has indeed been an elephant in the room for some time. While Turkey, by it’s geographical position has been an important element in NATO strategy, its performance as a NATO/Western ally however has been rather less than satisfactory, and more recently under Erdogan somewhat contentious. The animosity between Turkey and Greece, another NATO partner, has always been present.
The coup engineered or not certainly gave Erdogan a well seized opportunity to purge his armed forces of any Western leaning leadership, which it fortuitously seems for him, was a Gulanist trait.
Turkey?s Post-Coup Purge and Erdogan?s Private Army ? Foreign Policy
His treatment of his internal opponents has been carried out in the finest traditions of Turkish human and civil rights. A tradition well established through out the history of the Ottaman Empire and more recently, in the countrywide treatment of the Armenian minority which the Turks still refuse to admit was genocide.
The recent move to the S-400 seems to have confirmed that fitting in with NATO is not a Turkish priority, and the move to a more hardline Islamic alignment hardly bodes well with their aggressive pursuit of EU membership.
The continuing security of a cutting edge major western weapon system that is to be in the forefront of a number of countries, if it were to be operated by Turkey is of serious concern to many, hence the ongoing question of will it won’t it be released to them, and certainly of keen interest.