https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/e...stem-bmlgcbmwk
Erdogan deepens Turkey-US rift with £2.5bn deal for Russian missile system
President Erdogan has stoked a growing row with Nato by signalling that Turkey could purchase a second Russian missile defence system, a move that would accelerate Ankara’s pivot towards Moscow and the east.
The Turkish leader said he was committed to his decision to buy the Russian S-400 system, despite repeated warnings from the US that such a move could lead to sanctions and the cancellation of Ankara’s order for 100 advanced US F-35 fighter jets. This week, Curtis Scaparrotti, the top American general in Europe, said that Nato security and US-Turkey relations would be severely compromised should Ankara purchase the Russian system.
Yet speaking in an interview with Turkish news channel
Kanal 24, Mr Erdogan dismissed General Scaparrotti’s warning, and reaffirmed a pledge to purchase the $2.5 billion Russian deal and suggested that Ankara’s defence cooperation deal with Moscow could deepen even further. “The S-400 is a done deal, there can be no turning back. We will move toward a joint production. Perhaps after the S-400, we will go for the S-500,” Mr Erdogan said.......
The issue is likely to be high on the agenda when Nato’s foreign ministers gather in Washington next month, as the dispute over defence purchases threatens to widen a rift at the heart of the alliance.
Mr Erdogan is increasingly
building ties with Russia and China as his relations with Turkey’s traditional Western allies cool. Most Turkish officers posted to Nato assignments were purged from their positions in the president’s clampdown after the 2016 coup attempt, with many claiming asylum in Europe and warning that their places are now being filled with anti-Western officers. Adnan Tanriverdi, a former one-star general who was dismissed from the Turkish army in the 1990s for his alleged Islamist sympathies, was appointed Mr Erdogan’s defence adviser soon after the coup......