« The American Jewish Committee (AJC) and the Hellenic American Leadership Council (HALC) have written a joint letter to Congress (one of the Committees, actually), urging it to support an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would make the sale of F-16 fighters and upgrade kits to Turkey conditional to a certification that Turkey is not making aggressive moves against Greece, especially with overflights over its air space » reports Kathimerini.
The bipartisan amendment was sponsored by six House of Representatives members, three of them Greek-American, but is widely known as the Pappas Amendment, after Chris Pappas, a Representative from New Hampshire.
The full letter, by AJC Senior Director of Policy and Political Affairs Julie Rayman and HAC Executive Director Endy Zemenides, follows:
July 11, 2022
Esteemed Members of the Committee,
On behalf of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) and the Hellenic American Leadership Council (HALC), we write to urge your support for a bipartisan amendment to the NDAA sponsored by Rep. Chris Pappas, Gus Bilirakis, David Cicilline, Nicole Malliotakis, Frank Pallone, and Carolyn Maloney to limit the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey.
Turkish violations of Greek sovereign airspace and armed flyovers over islands in the Aegean are at dangerous levels, posing a real threat to peace and stability in the region. Additionally, Turkey holds provocative and dangerous naval exercises – sometimes with live ammunition – in Greek territorial waters and around inhabited islands. Despite these aggressive provocations by the Erdogan government, the U.S. administration has signaled openness to considering a request made by the Republic of Turkey to purchase 40 Lockheed Martin-made F-16 fighter jets and nearly 80 modernization kits for its existing enormous fleet of warplanes.
Selling Turkey new F-16s and upgrade kits to Turkey would undermine American law, values, and interests. Turkey has already used its existing fleet of American F-16s to violate Greek airspace. A broad array of experts consistently express concerns about co-locating upgraded F-16s in the same theater as Russian S400s, which Turkey also possesses. The Pappas amendment would prohibit the United States from selling F-16s and F-16 modernization kits and upgrade technologies to Turkey unless Congress receives certification that Turkey has not violated Greece’s sovereignty – specifically through territorial overflights or violations of Greece’s internationally-recognized Flight Information Region. We hope you will support this important amendment.
Kathimerini, July 11, 2022