A number of media outlets previously reported that Washington had asked Ankara to deliver Russian-made S-400 missile defence systems to Kiev in order to help Ukrainian forces fight Russian troops amid Moscow’s ongoing special operation.
The matter of S-400 deliveries to Ukraine is closed, since the missile systems are Turkey’s property to ensure the country’s security, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday.
“The head of the Communications Department of the Turkish presidential Administration [Fahrettin Altun] has already given the necessary response with all sensitivity… For them, this answer is enough, there is no need for anything more. Because all their work is limited to is creating a mess. They wonder ‘what other blow can we deal to Turkey in order to create problems for it?’ We interfere in these processes immediately, and they fail to achieve results,” Hürriyet newspaper quoted Erdogan as saying on Friday.
The Turkish president was referring to a Wall Street Journal op-ed penned by Fahrettin Altun, the head of the Communications Department of the Turkish presidential Administration, who reckoned that the idea of handing over the air defence systems Ankara purchased from Russia to Ukraine was “unrealistic”.
“Though quite unrealistic today, this idea presents an opportunity to discuss the problems Turkey has experienced lately with the West,” Altun wrote in response to a Reuters report suggesting that Washington had informally discussed with Turkey the possibility of sending Russian S-400s to Kiev.
Instead, Altun argued that the West should supply Turkey with F-35 fighter jets and Patriot missile systems without preconditions to help mend ties.
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