Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that there would be no Russian military experts in Turkey
Turkey considers the demands of other countries not to use the S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems acquired from Russia unacceptable. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters on Monday during his visit to Athens.
“The S-400s will be under our control 100 percent. We have sent [to Russia] our technicians for training and there will be no Russian military experts in Turkey. In this regard, demands from other countries not to ‘use’ [the S-400s] are unacceptable”, – he was quoted as saying by TRT television.
Meanwhile, U.S. Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman told CNN Türk on May 28 that the United States had presented Turkey with an alternative on the subject of Ankara’s acquisition of Russian S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems. However, she did not specify which alternative she was referring to.
Russia and Turkey signed a contract for Moscow to supply Ankara with S-400 SAM systems in 2017. Turkey was the first NATO country to buy the systems from Russia. Ankara’s decision provoked a strongly negative reaction from the US and the alliance as a whole. The United States has not stopped trying to get Turkey to give up the Russian SAMs. Due to the fact that Turkey is not yielding to pressure and is not getting rid of S-400, Washington has previously excluded Ankara from the US program for the production of fifth generation fighter-bombers F-35. In addition, the US has long threatened Turkey for buying S-400 with a series of unilateral sanctions, but was in no hurry to take these steps because it feared further straining relations with a key NATO ally, and Ankara warned that it would not let such restrictions go unanswered. Washington imposed such sanctions in December 2020.