Turkey May Refuse Further Supply of S-400 Systems

Turkey may not buy additional S-400 air defense systems to be in good books with the United States and due to the latter's pressure to reject the Russian equipment.

"A situation may arise that (the USA - IF) will put conditions on Turkey that it cannot refuse. And then it may see a more profitable opportunity for deepening cooperation with the United States, including on missile defense," Alexei Davydov, a researcher at the Center for Middle East Studies at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences, was quoted as saying by Interfax.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan however said a month ago that Turkey will not abandon the S-400s fearing U.S. sanctions. On October 24, the official representative of the Turkish defense ministry, Nadide Sebnem Aktop, revealed the systems would be put on alert regardless of the possibility of integration with the NATO air defense system.

The U.S.-Turkey tensions skyrocketed after the latter bought the S-400 systems from Russia for $2.5 billion in 2017. Washington’s attempts to persuade Ankara to ditch the systems went in vain. Soon after Russia began shipping the S-400s to Turkey in July 2019, the U.S. struck off Turkey’s name from the list of F-35 program partners.