Spokesperson for Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Omer Celik said Monday that negotiations with the Unites States about Ankara’s purchase of the Russian S-400 missile system are an unacceptable political compromise.
The government was severely criticized by the opposition for buying the system in 2017 for $2.5 billion, while Turkey has been unable to deploy it.
Ali Babacan, head of the Democracy and Progress Party, said that this deal was one of the mistakes committed by President Recep Tayyib Erdogan’s government. He said Erdogan wasted money in buying a system knowing that it cannot be deployed due to opposition from NATO and the threat of US sanctions.
On Sunday, adviser to the largest opposition party in Turkey, the Republican People’s Party, Unal Cevikoz said that Erdogan’s cabinet did not deploy the S-400 missiles for fear of US sanctions, suggesting this issue would be on the opposition’s agenda should it come to power in Turkey.
In a tweet, Celik dismissed Cevikoz’s statement, saying: “The advisor of the Republican People’s Party gave an absolute mandate to the US leadership to cancel the purchase deal of the Russian security system that protect Turkey’s security. The security of our country and the defense of our homeland are not subject for bargaining or political compromise.”
Last month, the United States condemned Turkey, a NATO ally, after it reportedly carried out its first test of the S-400 in defiance of its warnings.
On Sunday, Erdogan said his country will not abandon the deal, which it signed with Moscow in 2017. Deliveries of the first four missile batteries, worth $2.5 billion, began in July last year.
