Ankara’s rhetoric about “sharing the wealth in the Aegean” was repeated in an interview by the Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar.

“The United States owes us $1.4 billion and five F-35s” the Defense Minister of Turkey also argued in his interview, while regarding the Turkish F-16s he admitted that the issue burning Ankara is evolving slowly, but “Turkey has alternatives”.

As Hulusi Akar characteristically mentioned, “it’s going a little slowly (the issue of F-16s). This is the most important issue for us. We are buying 40 F-16 Block 70 Vipers. along with these F-16s, there is a modernization of the F-16s that we already have. As part of these modernization activities, our interdepartmental talks with the US Department of Defense have reached a positive point. At the same time, we know this is supported by the White House and sent to Congress.”

“Right now we are waiting for the congressional stage… Our hope and wish is that the congress will make a decision with common sense according to the ideas of the White House and the Pentagon. We expect positive and concrete steps in the next period. We expect this to happen very soon.”

According to Manolis Kostidis, the Turkish Minister of Defense commented on the opposition, that “we want it to be known that the adoption of any extreme path on this issue can really put the parties in trouble, and that we are not desperate on this issue, and that we have many alternatives at our disposal. They should not lead events in undesirable directions with reasonings that change by the day, emotional and irrational thoughts.’

“They owe us $1.4 billion and… five F-35s”

“On the F-35 matter, our cooperation ended, and we parted in a way that cannot be explained neither legally nor morally. A meeting was held on January 18. At this meeting an agreement was reached on economic, political and technical issues. We will continue negotiations in the coming days,” said Akar.

“Returning to the program is a separate matter. At present, the purpose of our negotiations is to pay the $1.4 billion that we have paid. Currently, there are five F-35s that we are entitled to, and we are discussing the future of this. Our negotiations continue without jeopardizing our own rights and interests.”

“We constantly express that we are in favor of sharing the wealth in the Aegean. We also contacted Greek ministers by phone and expressed that we are always open to dialogue. There was a train accident in Greece and we sent our condolences as soon as we heard about it. This mutual earthquake diplomacy is also taking place,” the Turkish minister reiterated.