Director of Communications Prof. Fahrettin Altun made a statement to Bloomberg prior to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to the US upon the invitation of US President Donald Trump and said that Erdoğan-Trump meeting would be one of the critical meetings concerning the Turkish-US relations.
Regarding the topics that will be primarily brought to the agenda on Turkey, Altun said: “There are many issues to be solved regarding the relations between the two countries. Since no progress has been recorded on these issues and other issues have emerged during the last two years, it is required that the two leaders engage in a comprehensive evaluation and determination.”
Noting that they have expressed their opinion on the S-400 defense system issue many times, Altun said: “Turkey is in urgent need of an air and missile defense system and every potential solution is offered to the US to avoid any difficulty in relation to these issues.”
Altun added:
"There was a concern about the interoperability of this system with NATO systems and we expressed our desire to address this issue through some technical negotiations. Secondly, there were questions about why we did not purchase the Patriot systems. In fact, we tried to buy them, but the sales conditions, especially technology transfer, were not carried out. The geopolitics of our country requires multiple air and missile defense systems. In addition, when we said we may buy Patriot systems, the US laid down the condition not to buy the S-400 system."
Whether or not S-400 system would pose a risk for the F-35 system, Altun pointed out that Turkey proposed the establishment of a joint technical working group and underlined that Turkey is a partner in the F-35 project and the potential harm to the ability of these fighter jets would also affect Turkey as much as the US.
Altun added: "I am confident that during the visit, President Erdoğan and President Trump will have a sincere conversation on this issue. I believe the two leaders will find an acceptable and practicable solution.”
Emphasizing that Turkey's exclusion from the F-35 program will not help Turkey-US defense industry partnership and also the program, Altun said concerning the possible US sanctions: “No one will gain anything from such actions, except those determined to destroy the Turkish-US cooperation in various issues.”
Altun stressed that to understand the importance of the Turkish-US partnership, everyone should be calm and adopt a longer-term perspective.
Regarding Turkey's expectations related to the agreement with the US on Syria, Altun said: “The agreements reached by the two countries are of great importance in terms of Turkey's efforts to clean-up the region from terror. On the other hand, YPG continues with its activities in the region and Turkey will not refrain from responding to attacks and provocations that might come from this terrorist organization.”
Mentioning Trump’s messages about the protection of the oil fields in Syria, Altun said: “The US decision to transfer their revenues to the YPG puts at risk the long-term stability and the coexistence of different ethnic and religious groups in this region. Details of this issue will be discussed by the Presidents of Turkey and the US.”
Stating that another item on the agenda within the context of this visit is FETO, Altun said: “Since the July 15, 2016, coup attempt, the US has not taken any significant action on this issue. The Turkish public is angry about this, and you can feel it when you talk to people on the streets.”
Moreover, Altun added that Turkey expects support from its ally in this regard.