Turkey Chooses Russia Over NATO for Missile Defense

[jpak]

Source: Bloomberg

Turkey has agreed to pay $2.5 billion to acquire Russia’s most advanced missile defense system, a senior Turkish official said, in a deal that signals a turn away from the NATO military alliance that has anchored Turkey to the West for more than six decades.

The preliminary agreement sees Turkey receiving two S-400 missile batteries from Russia within the next year, and then producing another two inside Turkey, according to the Turkish official, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter. A spokesman for Russia’s arms-export company Rosoboronexport OJSC said he couldn’t immediately comment on details of a deal with Turkey.

Turkey has reached the point of an agreement on a missile defense system before, only to scupper the deal later amid protests and condemnation from NATO. Under pressure from the U.S., Turkey gave up an earlier plan to buy a similar missile-defense system from a state-run Chinese company, which had been sanctioned by the U.S. for alleged missile sales to Iran.

The Turkey-NATO alliance, a key element of the Western Cold War-era security stance, has been strained in recent years, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pursuing a more assertive and independent foreign policy while conflict engulfed neighboring countries including Iraq and Syria. Tensions with the U.S. mounted over U.S. support for Kurdish militants in Syria that Turkey considers terrorists, and the relationship with the European Union soured as the bloc pushed back against what it sees as Turkey’s increasingly autocratic turn. Last month, Germany decided to withdraw from the main NATO base in Turkey, Incirlik, after Turkey refused to allow German lawmakers to visit troops there.

<more>



Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-13/turkey-is-said-to-agree-to-pay-2-5b-for-4-russian-s-400-sams

[Sanity Claws]

1. Is this another step in Russia's plan to dismantle NATO?

The more all of these seemingly disparate, discrete items occur within 1-2 years of each other, the more it seems, at least to me, that Russia was involved in Brexit, to dismantle the EU.

Russia plays a long game and appears to be winning, even before we realize what they are doing.

[geek tragedy]

2. I dunno, Turkey is actually ineligibile for membership in NATO as it's now a dictatorship.

Its participation in NATO was always a relic of the Cold War--Turkey has never been European, never will be European.

[DetlefK]

4. There was no foul play in Brexit.

1. The Brits have never been happy as part of the EU and they have always demanded special treatment and always made decisions unnecessarily complicated.

2. The Brexit-campaign lied. Simple as that. They touted wrong numbers and wrong statistics.



Britain no longer wants the Brexit. If the poll were redone today, Britain would vote to remain. But no british politician is daring to say that.

[geek tragedy]

6. what does that have to do with my post? nt

[DetlefK]

7. Oops. Wanted to reply to #1. My bad.

[DetlefK]

3. Erdogan is playing the Yanukovych-game.

Yanukovych was the President of Ukraine who was ousted in the Maidan-revolution. He tried to play the EU and Russia: He played friendly with both and tried to make them compete for his friendship.
This was okay for Russia, but not for the EU: The EU demanded that he decide. He picked Russia and Ukraine broke in two in a european-minded West and a Russia-minded East.



Erdogan is playing the same game. Exactly the same. He's trying to make friends with all power-blocs at the same time, trying to make them compete for his friendship. Erdogan is trying to turn Turkey into a regional superpower of the Middle-East and thinks that this is his diplomatic leverage:

* is NATO-member, but demands special treatment from NATO re the Kurds

* refuses to fulfill the conditions for becoming a EU-member, but demands that Turkey gets the same preferential treatment as if it were a EU-member

* is trying to win over Qatar by supporting them in their diplomatic spat with Saudi-Arabia

* Turkey shot down a russian bomber and boasted about it, only later to quietly back down and apologize and kiss up to Russia

* Turkey sent troops into Iraq and established a military base there without Iraq's permission. Let's see whether Turkey will retreat now that ISIS is almost defeated in Iraq.

* And Turkey has declared Israel its enemy since the Mavi Marmara-incident where israeli soldiers violently boarded a ship with Gaza-activists to prevent it from reaching the Gaza-strip.



Turkey's diplomatic relationships are all over the place because Turkey has introduced itself into all these situations. Sure, it makes Turkey a factor you have to take into account. But what happens once those many, many diplomatic relationships get into conflict with each other?

[WhiteTara]

5. What about our bombs under the Turkish gov's

airport? Are we making any moves to get them out of there?