The appeal by Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan for the lifting of US CAATSA sanctions in a recent TV interview highlighted the difficulties of US-Turkish relations and the implicit but clear admission that Washington and Ankara are looking for a formula that would under certain conditions allow even the return of Turkey to the F-35 program.
Without denying the scenarios about the storage of Russian S-400 missiles in exchange for Turkey’s return to the fifth-generation F-35 fighter program, which Kathimerini revealed a few days ago, Fidan said that “these are claims” on the one hand, and that “we are defining our position on the framework issues, especially on the critical content of the negotiations, but apart from that, we have a methodical attitude of not revealing too much about our positions on what we will do, when and how we will do it until we reach our final goal.”
Indeed, on this point, Fidan stressed that the issue of the US CAATSA sanctions was one “that affected the alliance relations between Turkey and the US.”
“We have to get out of it,” he stressed.
Additionally, media reports in Turkey allege that Greece is conspiring with Gulenist elements to undermine potential F-35 agreements. The pro-government newspaper Milliyet noted that talks between Turkey and the US have sparked concern in Athens, claiming that both Greece and FETO are initiating a disinformation campaign against Turkey.
Meanwhile, the decision by Washington to extend the arms embargo against the Republic of Cyprus for another year has also caused discontent in Ankara. Pro-government Turkish media outlets emphasize the importance of the presence of Western military forces in the Republic of Cyprus, while concealing that this concerns the possible evacuation of civilians from Israel and Lebanon.
According to the widely circulated pro-government newspaper Turkiye, the West is using the tension in Israel as a pretext to arm the island. The reports state that “between Greek Cypriots claiming the island as their own and Israel’s plans to occupy Cyprus, the danger around the TRNC [the entity in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus] is growing by the day.”