ANKARA: The dispute between Moscow and Ankara over Syria’s rebel-held Idlib province will not affect the purchase of Russia’s S-400 missile system, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Saturday after meeting his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
“They’re two different issues,” Cavusoglu added. “We can’t change our principal stance, our policies, because of one disagreement with this country or that country. We shouldn’t let the Syrian problem undermine our cooperation and also our relations.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has demanded that the Syrian regime withdraw its Russian-backed forces from territory captured in its ongoing offensive in Idlib by the end of the month or face military retaliation. The ultimatum follows the killing of 13 Turkish soldiers by regime shelling in one week.
Aaron Stein, director of the Middle East program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, tweeted: “Idlib isn’t magic, and the S-400 issue won’t magically go away. It is going to end badly.”
In December 2017, Turkey and Russia signed a $2.5 billion deal, vehemently opposed by the US, for the delivery of four S-400 batteries.
The transfer of all components of the S-400 system was completed last year. Turkey received the first batch of S-400s last year. The delivery date of the second batch is yet to be announced.
Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, Ankara office director of the German Marshall Fund of the US, said Washington sees the current tension between Ankara and Moscow as an opportunity to fix its relationship with Turkey.
FASTFACT
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has demanded that the Syrian regime withdraw its Russian-backed forces from territory captured in its ongoing offensive in Idlib by the end of the month or face military retaliation. The ultimatum follows the killing of 13 Turkish soldiers by regime shelling in one week.
“Ankara appears open to the approach. However … Turkey has already taken delivery of (the S-400 system) from Russia,” he told Arab News.
“Turkey’s operationalization of the S-400s could be sanctioned by the US Congress despite the US administration’s efforts to improve relations. Therefore, if the US and Turkey are serious about fixing their relationship, they need to find some sort of solution to the S-400 crisis.”
Sinan Ulgen, a former Turkish diplomat who chairs the Istanbul-based Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies, told Arab News: “If we do witness escalation in the coming days, with Turkey entering into direct military conflict with Syria, backed by Russia, it would be difficult to imagine a scenario where Turkey purchases yet another strategic weapons system from Russia, a second battery for the S-400, all the more so since it seems that Turkey is seeking more political support from its partners in the West, particularly from the US.”
Ulgen said if Ankara wants to improve its ties with the West, it will have to review its purchases of strategic weapons systems from Russia.
