“What were we supposed to do? Wait for you? We are taking care of ourselves.” The Turkish leader acknowledged a deposit had been paid for the system, whose full price tag is $2.5 billion.
I can see his PoV on this, even if I don't care for the man.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert called the purchase “inconsistent” with a 2016 agreement to phase out Soviet-era military equipment among NATO allies.
The Greeks and Turks weren't the only NATO members who failed to hold up their agreements in NATO, in my experience ... but they seemed to be regular offenders.
“A NATO interoperable missile defense system remains the best option to defend Turkey from the full range of threats in the region.”
He's right, and the sorry state of C2 organic to Turkey argues for the practical side of that observation, however, this is about politics.