Turkey’s purchase of the Russian S-400 missile system was “not a choice but a necessity” because it is under serious threat, its defense minister has told the United States.
The comments came after a second shipment of equipment needed to make the S-400s operational was delivered to Turkey on Saturday.
The US has strongly urged Turkey to pull back from the deal – the first such move between a NATO member and Russia – warning Ankara it will face economic sanctions, reportedly costing more than $2bn.
Defense Minister Hulusi Akar told his American counterpart Mark Esper by phone on Friday buying the controversial defense system does not mean a change in the country’s strategic orientation.
Turkey was under “serious threat” and its acquisition of S-400s was necessary, Akar said, adding it was obliged to take measures against “intensive attacks” from the Syrian border as it is a priority.
The first equipment for the advanced air-defense system was delivered to the Murted airbase outside the capital on Friday, the defense ministry said, adding deliveries would continue in the coming days.
The US was publicly silent on how it would respond to the Russian delivery.
Akar told Esper that Turkey was still assessing a bid to acquire the US Patriot air-defense system, and a deterioration of bilateral relations would not serve the interests of either country.
US officials urged Turkey to buy Patriot missiles rather than the S-400s from Moscow.
But Ankara said it was the United States that refused to sell Patriots to Turkey, and that led it to seek other vendors. Russia offered a better deal, including technology transfers, it added.
The US has said Turkey will not be allowed to participate in the program to produce hi-tech F-35 fighter jets or buy them. Washington has repeatedly said the Russian missiles are incompatible with NATO systems and a threat to the F-35s.
Afzal Ashraf, a professor of conflict security at the University of Nottingham in the UK, told Al Jazeera the situation was “a very significant political concern”.
“This is the first time a major [NATO] member has taken a weapons system from Russia. It’s a political statement that the US doesn’t have hegemony and control over NATO members, and particularly over Turkey,” Ashraf said.
“In military terms, it is an advantage of the US to have access to the Russian systems within the NATO armoury to understand the way the system works and deploy countermeasures against it,” he added.
