US lawmakers urge Biden administration not to sell F-16 fighter jets to Turkey

* Photo: US House of Representatives (AA - File)

Click to read the article in Turkish

11 lawmakers from the US House of Representatives, both Democrats and Republicans, have sent a letter to US President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and urged the Biden Administration to not sell F-16 fighter jets to Turkey amid recent reports of sale.

"While we are confident that Congress will stand together to block any such exports should these plans progress, the US cannot afford to transfer any advanced military equipment to the government of Turkey at this time," the joint letter of the lawmakers has read.

Expressing "a profound sense of concern" amid recent reports indicating that "Turkey may soon purchase 40 new Lockheed Martin F-16 lighter fets and 80 F-16 modernization kits from the US government", the lawmakers have stated the following in their letter:

'We cannot compromise our national security'

Following President [Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan's September announcement that Turkey will purchase an additional tranche of Russian S-400 missile defense systems, we cannot afford to compromise our national security by sending U.S. manufactured aircraft to a treaty ally which continues to behave like an adversary.

"As you know, the Trump Administration officially removed Turkey from its F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (FSJ) program after President Erdoğan executed Turkey's first purchase of Russian S-400 systems, a decision which prevented Turkey from compromising the F-35 system.

"With the backing of a bipartisan coalition of Members of Congress, this commonsense policy has continued under your Administration.

'It will continue threatening our allies'

As Turkey reportedly paid 1.4 billion US dollars to join the U.S.-led JSF program, President Erdoğan now seeks compensation in the form of cash, the planned F-35 shipment, new F-16 fighter jets, and modernization kits for its existing F-16 fleet. While we are confident that Congress will stand together to block any such exports should these plans progress, the US cannot afford to transfer any advanced military equipment to the government of Turkey at this time.

"As long as President Erdoğan advances his expansionist project in the Eastern Mediterranean, Turkey will continue to threaten our national security and the security of our closest allies in the region - Greece, Israel and Cyprus. We urge you to act in our national interest and for the sake of stability in the Eastern Mediterranean by refusing to reinforce Turkey's aging arsenal of fighter jets, and we look forward to receiving your response."

Today I led my colleagues in urging @POTUS to refuse Turkey's request to purchase 40 new F-16 fighter jets & 80 modernization kits from the U.S gov't. @POTUS must act in our national interest for the sake of stability in the Eastern Mediterranean & our allies in the region. pic.twitter.com/ikuLnsgisY

— Office of Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (@RepMalliotakis) October 25, 2021

US-Turkey relations and fighter jet purchases

The relations between Turkey and the US have been especially tense over the past five years on a series of subjects such as disagreements over Syria, close relations between Turkey and Russia, activities in the Mediterranean, the Halkbank case in the US, the crisis over the imprisonment of Pastor Branson and the US' warnings about rights and freedoms in Turkey.

When Reuters reported that Turkey would buy new F-16s, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said: "This is something related to the issue of F-35s. We made a payment of 1 billion 400 million dollars for F-35s. And the US made us such an offer in exchange for these payments."

The US State Department announced that Turkey wanted to purchase F-16s and the US did not offer any funding to Turkey about the payment.

After Turkey's purchase of the S-400 defense missile system from Russia, the US excluded Turkey from the F-35 fighter jet project. Before being excluded from the program, Turkey was planning to buy 100 F-35s. (PT/SD)