Erdogan says U.S. sanctions an attack on Turkey’s sovereignty

President Tayyip Erdogan stated on Wednesday that U.S. sanctions imposed on Turkey over its buy of Russian defence programs have been an attack on Ankara’s sovereign rights geared toward deterring its defence business, a transfer which he stated was certain to fail.

On Monday, Washington imposed the sanctions focusing on NATO member Turkey’s Defence Industry Directorate (SSB), its chief Ismail Demir and three different workers over its acquisition of Russian S-400 missile defence programs.

In his first public feedback on the transfer, Mr. Erdogan stated that issues stemming from the sanctions could be overcome and vowed to ramp up efforts in the direction of an impartial defence business, whereas criticising Washington for sanctioning a NATO ally.

“What kind of alliance is this? What kind of partnership is this? This decision is an open hostile attack against our country’s sovereign rights,” he stated.

“The real goal is to block the advances our country started in the defence industry recently and to once again render us absolutely dependent on them,” he added.

“Surely there will be problems, but each problem will push open a door for us for a solution.”

Washington says the S-400s pose a risk to its F-35 fighter jets and to NATO’s broader defence programs. Turkey rejects this and says S-400s is not going to be built-in into NATO. On Wednesday, Erdogan repeated that the U.S. issues had no technical foundation.

He added that Ankara nonetheless produced near 1,000 elements for the F-35 jets, regardless of being faraway from the programme over the S-400 buy. Turkey had additionally been resulting from purchase greater than 100 F-35 jets.