Akar to Al-Jazeera: We do not accept not to do violations, said the Turkish Defense Minister, speaking about the conditions of the American Congress, so that the purchase of American F-16s in Turkey can proceed.
According to Hulusi Akar, the process of selling 40 F-17 Vipers continues, while as noted by Turkey “it is a sovereign state and we will not accept the purchase of aircraft conditionally”.
“We believe these terms will change later. Because we are allies. We hope they will understand their mistake,” he noted, writes haberler.com.
Turkish officials called the US “an allied state that should contribute to the strengthening” of Turkey. “Because our strength is their strength”, he said characteristically.
“We have seen that the United States Congress has enacted laws and conditions regarding the use of these aircraft. We also said that Turkey is a sovereign state and we will not conditionally accept the purchase of aircraft. We believe these conditions will change later,” Hulusi Akar said.
“Furthermore, the United States will act institutionally to sell these planes to Turkey. Because we are allies. We have a lot of work to do together. So we hope that the United States will recover from its mistake,” he noted.
The Turkish Defense Minister stressed that “whoever prevents Turkey from acquiring these planes, no matter what, will be ashamed of himself.”
“We want to fill that gap. If this creates a problem for us, we have alternatives”, he added.
“The Turkish Armed Forces are strong. It is not possible for us to accept the conditions imposed on us. As we saw in the example of Ukraine, the world needs a strong Turkey. Especially our allies and friends and the Europeans. We have an important role in NATO. Therefore, our allies and partners should not stand in the way of buying these planes,” he concluded.
