Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu commented on calls to return the S-400 surface-to-air missile systems Ankara acquired to Russia because of the events in Ukraine.
"When the war between Russia and Ukraine started, they use wonderful slogans: 'Let's return the S-400.' You'll forgive me, but they are mentally unstable. Having seen the situation in Ukraine, that it can do nothing against planes and missiles, and to put forward proposals to return defense systems, this is complete idiocy," Haberler news portal quotes him as saying.
Russia and Turkey signed a contract for Moscow to supply Ankara with S-400 SAMs in 2017. Turkey was the first NATO country to buy these systems from Russia. Ankara's decision provoked a sharply negative reaction from the United States and the alliance as a whole. The United States has not stopped trying to get Turkey to give up its Russian SAMs. Due to the fact that Turkey is not yielding to pressure and does not get rid of S-400, Washington has previously excluded Ankara from the American program for the production of fifth-generation fighter-bombers F-35. In addition, the US has long threatened Turkey for the purchase of S-400 to introduce a number of unilateral sanctions, but was in no hurry to take these steps, as they feared further aggravation of relations with a key NATO ally, and Ankara warned that it will not leave the application of such restrictions without response. In December 2020, Washington imposed such sanctions.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV/TASS
Based on materials from TASS