Ankara warns US against harmful steps over Russian S-400s
ISTANBUL
Turkey called on the United States on July 10 to avoid steps harmful to bilateral relations after the U.S. State Department spokeswoman reiterated Ankara would face real and negative consequences for acquiring Russian S-400 defense systems.
Turkey's foreign ministry spokesman said the comments by the State Department's Morgan Ortagus on Juşy 9 were not in line with the spirit and content of talks between presidents of the two countries at the G20 summit last month.
Despite their longstanding strategic alliance as members of NATO, since 2017 Turkey and the U.S. have been at odds over Turkey's decision to buy the S-400, a Russian-made missile defense system, and U.S. threats to break its contract to sell Turkey F-35 jets over the dispute.
Despite growing calls from the U.S. for Turkey to abandon its deal with Russia, Turkish officials describe their transaction with Russia as a "done deal."
"Obama administration said no, no, no to Turkey when they wanted to purchase Patriots and they [Turkey] bought S400," Trump said last month and called Obama administration's reluctance and failure to sell Patriots to Turkey a 'mess'.
Blaming the Obama administration for the ongoing S400-F35 tension between the two countries, Trump said it is not Turkey's or Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's fault.
