Ankara has not received from the U.S. neither the fighter jets, nor the money paid for them, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said. He was quoted by Anadolu Agency.
“There were people who threatened us about buying C-400s without offering anything in return. Now we are negotiating about supplying F-16s, but they refuse us. We were promised F-35 planes, but they didn’t keep their word. Although we paid about 1 billion 400 million dollars. There are no planes, and the money has not been returned. We always keep our word and expect this from our partners,” Turkish Anadolu Agency quotes the Turkish leader as saying.
The U.S. had previously excluded Turkey from the program of supplying the latest F-35 fighter jets as punishment for the purchase of Russian S-400 air defense systems. Erdogan later announced an American offer to buy other fighters, but not the fifth, but the fourth generation – the F-16.
The deal will have to be approved in Congress, where it has powerful opponents.
