Ankara Slaps Washington with Counter-Ultimatum

“The United States must choose. Does it want to remain Turkey’s ally or risk our friendship by joining forces with terrorists to undermine its NATO ally’s defense against its enemies?” Fuat Oktay tweeted, in response to Pence’s demands, RT reported.

Earlier on Wednesday, the US second-in-command demanded that Ankara “choose” whether it wants to remain a “critical” NATO partner or jeopardize its alliance membership by “reckless decisions” such as the purchase the Russian S-400 air defense systems.

The Twitter battle between two top politicians erupted two days after the Pentagon stopped shipping equipment related to the F-35 fighter jet to Turkey. The DoD made clear that deliveries will not resume unless Turkey abandons its purchase of Russian hardware.

Turkey, which has been a vital partner in the F-35 program, once again reminded the US on Wednesday that its S-400 purchase was a “done deal”.

“[S-400s] will not be integrated into the NATO system,” Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Wednesday, advocating the setting up of a multi-party technical group that would ensure the air defense system “will not be a threat” to either the F-35 or other NATO systems.

He also hinted that the issue will most likely be resolved between President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Erdogan.

Turkey has long insisted that, as a sovereign nation, it has the right to choose its trade partners and arms suppliers, repeatedly stressing that buying Russian systems is vital for the country’s national defense, amid the ongoing Syrian conflict right on its doorstep.

Besides tensions centering around arms deals, Turkey has been expressing continuing concerns over Washington’s support to the Syrian Kurdish militias, which are at the forefront of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Ankara considers Kurdish forces in both Syria and Iraq as a “terrorist” extension of the Workers’ Party of Kurdistan (PKK), a decades-old Turkey-based insurgency.

Cavusoglu will reportedly tell US Security Adviser John Bolton and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that its purchase of Russian S-400 air defense system is "definitely a done deal", Sputnik reported.

At the same time, the senior official stated that Turkey had proposed the United States that they form a technical working group to determine that the defence systems do not pose a threat to US or NATO military equipment.

Russia and Turkey signed a loan agreement for the supply of S-400 air defence systems in 2017. In early March, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reaffirmed that the deal with Russia on deliveries of the S-400 air defence systems was completed, and said a new deal on purchases of advanced Russian-made S-500 systems could be possible in future.

A State Department official told Sputnik on Monday that the US government warned Ankara that it could face even more consequences including sanctions for purchasing Russian S-400 systems.

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