Because Turkey will no longer snore on Western weapons
Eurofighter Typhoon, F-16 and more: after years of proximity to Russia, Turkey would like to buy weapons of western production. Marco Orioles's article
The war in Ukraine has triggered a series of upheavals in international politics that promise to reconfigure and profoundly alter the balance of the world order.
THE CASE OF TURKEY AND ITS VALZER WITH MOSCOW
Turkey is a clear case of this. After the years of strategic alignment with Moscow favored by the common involvement in the war in Syria, and the fall from grace in the West for the unexpected purchase by the Russians of the S-400 anti-missile defense system which cost Ankara the traumatic exclusion from the program F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, Erdogan now has the concrete possibility of gaining a rapprochement with the West which would be advantageous especially in military terms.
PURCHASES IN DANCE
At stake is already the purchase of eighty Eurofighter Typhoons, an air superiority fighter built by the consortium made up of Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo, but the loyalty check goes far beyond the gem produced jointly by Great Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain. Joe Biden has in fact put on the plate the sale of forty models of F-16 Block 70 and the updating of the existing fleet of the old F-16s. Prospects also include the supply of high-tech missiles, radar and electronic warfare systems.
THE DEFENSE NEWS ANALYSIS
Speaking to Defense News magazine about what happened from February 24 to today, an adviser to Erdogan said that "the war between our two partners Russia and Ukraine has created a new orientation in favor of strengthening supplies with our NATO allies ".
In the entourage of the Turkish president there is the conviction of having to make a clear choice of field and this naturally to the detriment of the huge and demanding investments in Russian armaments that Ankara had planned.
THE ANALYST'S OPINION
According to Ozgur Eksi, a Turkish defense analyst, all the strategic agreements matured in recent years between Russia and Turkey are now shattered and also business that is in an advanced stage of negotiations such as the sale by Moscow of the Su-35 and Su-57 aircraft. are now destined to remain in the drawer.
THE SWEDEN AND FINLAND TEST
The decisive test is of course represented by the forthcoming accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO over which Ankara has formally veto powers. Erdogan has already shown that he wants to take advantage of this lever, in exchange for his consent, to solicit, as a US diplomat always told the Defense News , the transfer of certain weapon systems.
FALL OF THE EMBARGO?
In reality, this climate of trust has already been palpable for several weeks. As the Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Faruk Kaymakci admitted as early as February, Great Britain had lifted the embargo on the sale of arms to Turkey imposed in 2019 after the nefarious Turkish offensive in Northern Syria. According to Defense News , Canada could soon do the same.
But for the relationship between Turkey and the West to flourish completely again, it will be necessary to overcome numerous obstacles, the total embargo imposed also in 2019 by the Czech Republic, Finland, Holland, Norway, Spain and Sweden and the partial ones of Italy, France and Germany remains standing. . The German suspension of the sale of engines for the Altay, an advanced model of the Turkish indigenous tank, is particularly painful.
OVERTURNING?
It is plausible, however, that the discussions these hours in NATO and the right level of pressure from the US will have the effect of softening everyone's positions. In short, we could soon see a drastic reversal on the Turkish side. Although Erdogan continues to use his relationship with Putin as a side to carve out a role of mediator in the current conflict, the advantage for Ankara to return to siding unambiguously with the Western front are immeasurable.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/turchia-occidente-armi/ on Wed, 08 Jun 2022 08:40:03 +0000.