Washington Times – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country is determined to buy and field a Russian-made missile-defense system, despite efforts by the White House to head off the deal.
Speaking at a rally in Istanbul on Tuesday, Mr. Erdogan again slammed the Trump administration’s efforts to sway Turkey from pressing ahead with the purchase of the S-400 missile defense system. During the rally, the Turkish leader said the White House had only itself to blame for not supporting Turkey’s defense needs or heeding its complaints about developments in neighboring Syria.
“Now [Washington], you tell us to give up purchasing the S-400 [but] … don’t provide us joint production and financial support” to field the American-built Patriot missile, Mr. Erdogansaid. “Having the S-400 from Russia is an outcome of this pursuit,” he added, Voice of America reported.
