Foreign Minister Cavusoglu Speaks About F-16 Sale
Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, regarding the US sale of F-16s to Turkey, said, "The process is currently running normally. Of course, due to some voices coming from the Congress, everyone inevitably asks questions about whether there will be an obstacle or whether it will be conditional, but negotiations at the technical level continue in the normal course."
Çavuşoğlu, who is in New York for the 77th
United Nations General Assembly Meetings, met with Turkish journalists at the Turkevi and made statements.
"Of course, the focus of many meetings was the developments in the context of Russia and Ukraine. I heard many of my counterparts praising our contributions to international peace, especially the role of Mr. President. In the context of global food security, it is everyone's common wish that the Istanbul Agreement works or continues to work. During the week of the UN General Assembly, Russia's decision on partial mobilization, the announcement of referendums in Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson and the prisoner exchange were important developments. As Turkey, we will continue to do our best for a just and lasting solution between Russia and Ukraine."
Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu made the following statements regarding the grain agreement between Russia and Ukraine:
"Of course, everyone is asking whether it is possible to extend this 4-month agreement or not. They also asked this in the bilateral meeting we just had with the President of the General Assembly, and everyone knows that if there will be a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, it will be thanks to Turkey, so Turkey is the hope. Of course, there are those who want the war to end and those who do not. The number of those who don't want it to end is small, but in general we have seen that countries want this war to end. Everyone started to feel the negative effects of this war in every field. Therefore, we will of course continue our efforts. We have been pursuing this policy of balance for a long time, for a long time. While pursuing this policy of balance, there has been a lot of criticism, both internally and externally, questioning whether there is a shift in Turkey's foreign policy axis. We have always said that these relations are not an alternative to our other contacts, and now everyone has begun to see how important this is."
Minister Çavuşoğlu answered the question whether the US was stalling Turkey on the sale of F-16s with the following words:
"The process is working normally at the moment. Of course, due to some voices coming from the Congress, everyone inevitably asks questions about whether there will be an obstacle or whether it will be conditional, but negotiations at the technical level continue in the normal course, and the administration's determination on this issue continues. This is what Blinken said in our bilateral meeting. By the way, Mr. Blinken's father passed away. I would like to convey my condolences to them here. On the other hand, there were some cracking voices from the Congress. The Congress passed a resolution, but it is not a binding law, you know, from the lower house, the House of Representatives. There is another resolution from the Senate, then the two resolutions are merged and finally a resolution comes out about the F-16. Our contacts at the Congress level continue. Mr. Volkan Bozkır and Mr. Efkan Ala have gone to Washington from here and are in contact with the Congress. Previously, our parliamentary delegations also came to Washington and held contacts.
There were members of Congress and senators with whom Mr. President met here. In these meetings, these important senators give strong support for the delivery of F-16s to Turkey, but we are also telling the administration this: We will not be in an agreement that ties our hands in both technical and political negotiations. In other words, we will buy F-16s, use them in this way, use them in that way, you can't do this, you can't do that. It is not acceptable for a NATO member to impose such a restriction on another NATO member. We know that some lobbies, such as the Greek lobby and the Armenian lobby, especially after the Greek Prime Minister came to Washington, opposed this and tried to prevent it, but it is also a fact that there are lobbies that support it, that is, there are lobbies that support giving it to Turkey. We said we would not be in a conditional agreement. Why should we buy a product we cannot use?
We continue our efforts to lift CAATSA sanctions. We also tell them directly to their faces that the US has a double standard on this issue. For example, sanctions against India have been lifted, and rightly so. It should be so. Because India also tried to buy from the US. After all, a country like India should be able to buy the products it wants from wherever it wants. It is not a NATO member anyway. Even if it is a NATO member, when you can't get it from somewhere, defense, now let's say that this is what happened and we couldn't get the F-16. You know that we have our own work until we produce F-16s and fighter jets, we will definitely buy them from somewhere. Therefore, we participated in this F-35 program like 9 other countries within the framework of NATO alliance. Because of CAATSA, our membership and partnership there has been suspended. This is a very wrong decision. We are continuing our efforts to correct this."
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