Hope for Major U.S.-Turkey F-16 Deal If Erdogan Defeated: Opposition

• The highest international coverage aide to Turkish presidential hopeful Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu informed Newsweek the challenger needs to restore frayed relations with the U.S.
• Approval for a long-delayed $20 billion deal for brand new F-16 fighter jets could possibly be one place to begin, Ünal Çeviköz stated.
• The six-party opposition bloc is dedicated to improved “coordination and cooperation with the U.S.,” he stated.

The highest international coverage aide to Turkish presidential challenger Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu believes an opposition victory in subsequent month’s elections might unlock a brand new period of protection cooperation between Ankara and the U.S.

Ünal Çeviköz informed Newsweek in an interview {that a} new, opposition-led authorities would look to conclude a stalled $20 billion deal for American-made F-16s and rejoin the F-35 fighter jet program from which Turkey was eliminated in 2019 after buying Russian-made S-400 anti-aircraft methods.

“With the democratization processes in home politics, and with a brand new imaginative and prescient of the international coverage implementation of Turkey after the elections with the brand new authorities, we consider that Turkish-U.S. relations will even have higher openings and horizons,” Çeviköz stated.

Kılıçdaroğlu is standing because the opposition candidate for the Might 14 election, representing the six-party Nation Alliance, which was shaped with the singular intention of unseating President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and ending his 20 years in energy. Kılıçdaroğlu—a veteran bureaucrat and long-time chief of the social democratic Republican Individuals’s Celebration (CHP)—is barely forward of the incumbent in polls.

Çeviköz stated the opposition group is “fairly assured” of success and {that a} new Kılıçdaroğlu-led administration will probably be seeking to restore a number of the harm finished to Turkey’s international relations over 20 years below Erdogan, notably to Turkish-U.S. defense-industrial cooperation.

A proposed $20 billion deal for 40 Lockheed Martin Block 70 F-16 fighter jets in addition to upgrades to Turkey’s present F-16 fleet, has been caught in limbo amid a spread of U.S.-Turkish disputes, together with Ankara’s continued block on Swedish NATO accession.

This week, the U.S. authorised an F-16 modernization package deal price some $259 million, a call Çeviköz stated he hopes is an efficient signal for the long run, and recognition of the Turkish parliament’s current approval for Finland to hitch NATO.

“It is a very marginal a part of the entire challenge, which remains to be pending.” Çeviköz stated. “The general massive challenge is greater than $20 billion. So, we count on that after the elections, these reciprocal encouraging steps will most likely proceed, and we are going to obtain additional progress.”

The F-35 drawback is more difficult. Rejoining the fifth-generation jet program “is a objective, and it’s already current in our widespread place paper which has been signed by the six leaders of the nation alliance,” Çeviköz stated.

“However I’ve to confess that we’ve got misplaced two years,” he added, noting that the weather of growth and manufacturing that had been as soon as Turkey’s duty have now been taken over “by different producers.”

“So, will probably be tough to enter into the F-35 challenge per se,” he stated. “However the concept right here is it is a matter of constant key defense-industrial cooperation between Turkey and the U.S. The F-35 is simply the fifth-generation challenge. There will probably be additional technological growth sooner or later, for the formation of the sixth era, maybe.”

“The concept that we’ve got in our thoughts is that we wish to present our willpower to proceed the event of Turkish defense-industrial manufacturing in coordination and cooperation with the U.S. And that’s what we imply once we say we wish to return to the F-35 challenge.”

Ankara was kicked out of the F-35 program for buying S-400 Russian surface-to-air missile platforms, ignoring warnings from fellow NATO nations together with the U.S. that the methods might compromise allied safety and labeled details about the F-35 plane.

Çeviköz stated a brand new opposition-led authorities could be keen to work with NATO allies to nullify any risks posed by the S-400s, although he would not decide to abandoning the methods totally.

“We perceive that one of many major hurdles in entrance of Turkey’s reengagement within the F-35 challenge or additional defense-industrial cooperation with the U.S. is, in fact, the procurement of S-400s from the Russians,” he stated.

“I perceive that the long run authorities will probably be in fact keen to discover a resolution to that drawback. I can not make any judgement now as to how this resolution goes to be reached. However will probably be a type of understanding which can fulfill the 2 events, each Turkey and the U.S. And with the decision of this S-400 hurdle, I am certain the reintroduction of Turkey into the defense-industrial cooperation with the U.S. will proceed.”

Pressed on whether or not a future Kılıçdaroğlu administration could be keen to surrender the Russian methods, Çeviköz responded: “‘Giving up’ could be outlined in numerous phrases. Definitely, Turkey is just not going to throw them away, as a result of we paid for them, and we’ve got put in them.”

“However there could possibly be a number of mechanisms or choices which could be passable for the safety notion that our NATO allies have in regards to the presence of S-400s in Turkish territory. I feel there will probably be a whole lot of potentialities to beat these issues.”

Newsweek has contacted the State Division by electronic mail to request remark.