The NATO alliance was formed specifically to counter the Warsaw Pact which consisted of the Soviet Union (now Russia) and Eastern Europe. Erdoğan can’t be allowed to play both sides of the fence.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s determination to purchase Russian anti-aircraft missile systems could cripple his country’s participation in the NATO alliance, Vice President Mike Pence warned Wednesday.
“Turkey must choose: Does it want to remain a critical partner of the most successful military alliance in the history of the world?” Pence said at NATO Engages, an event hosted on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Washington. “Or, does it want to risk the security of that partnership by making reckless decisions that undermine that alliance?”
Pence’s rebuke raised the stakes of Turkey’s insistence over buying Russian S-400s to deploy alongside NATO’s most advanced stealth fighter jet. Pence reiterated that the United States would not deliver the F-35 warplanes to Turkey if Erdoğan sticks with the S-400s, just hours after the top Turkish diplomat demanded the planes while downplaying the value of Trump’s offer to sell alternative U.S.-made air defense systems.
“Turkey is part of this [program] and we have [been] introducing many parts of this F-35,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said at the same forum. “So this is not like U.S. is producing something and U.S. is selling to NATO allies, including Turkey. So, we are part of this program, so it shouldn’t be that simple.”
Çavuşoğlu also denied Turkey is creating a rift within NATO. “Turkey doesn’t have to choose between Russia or any others,” Çavuşoğlu said. “And we don’t see our relations with Russia as an alternative to our relations with others and nobody, neither West nor Russia, should or can ask us to choose between [them].”