Erdogan reacted to US sanctions and promised a more powerful military industry
SMA NEWS – ANKARA
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan commented for the first time on Washington’s sanctions regarding the purchase of Russian S-400 air defense missile systems, learned BulgarianMilitary.com.
He made his comment during an official ceremony for the opening of a new highway in Turkey. According to the Turkish president, the sanctions from Washington are aiming at destabilizing the Turkish military industry. Erdogan also said these attempts to thwart Turkey’s growing military industry would fail and only stimulate it to grow further.
As we announced on Monday (December 14th), the United States has imposed long-delayed sanctions against Turkey under US law CAASTA. This law has a single purpose – to reduce Russian weapons sales worldwide by reducing Russia’s military influence. Turkey is the first US ally against which this law is applying in practice.
Erdogan stressed that the real purpose of the sanctions imposed on his country is to make Turkey more dependent on the United States. “What will happen now? We will work twice as hard as in the past to make our defense industry independent in all aspects and to hasten projects undertaken by our Presidency of Defense Industries. We will provide even greater support to our defense industry companies,” was his reaction to US sanctions.
