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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has strongly criticized the United States, which threatens its NATO allies with sanctions for buying Russian missiles and supporting Azerbaijan in the fight against Armenia.
“Some Americans called my brother Ilham Aliyev and told him that if Turkey sided with Azerbaijan, there would be sanctions against Turkey,” Erdogan said Sunday. His comment was made in the context of Azerbaijan’s ongoing clashes against the Armenian occupiers in Nagorno-Karabakh. Washington has also threatened sanctions against Ankara for the purchase of Russian S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems.
“The United States does not know who it is dealing with,” said the Turkish president. He asked the United States to impose sanctions, whatever they may be. Erdogan said this during a congress of the ruling Justice and Development Party in Malatya. “The United States wants us to return Russia’s S-400 missile systems, but we are not a tribe, but a sovereign state,” the president said.
Ties between NATO allies Turkey and the United States were severely strained last year by Ankara’s acquisition of Russia’s advanced S-400 air defense system, prompting Washington to remove Turkey from its F-35 stealth fighter program. The United States says Russia could use the system to secretly obtain details of classified F-35 jets and it is incompatible with NATO systems. With regard to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Ankara does not hide its strong support for Baku, based on the principle of “one nation, two states”.
Turkey
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