“We are a proven nation, a proven military that would never act against our alliances. There is no reason to worry,” underlined the Turkish Defense Minister
“A NATO without Turkey is unthinkable,” Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said in an interview with the Financial Times.
“We are a proven nation, a proven military that would never act against our alliances. There is no reason to worry,” Akar added.
“We fully support NATO’s open door policy. Just as we respect candidates’ desire to become members, they must respect our security concerns,” Akar said. “We want this problem solved, but there is nothing we can do. We are waiting for Sweden and Finland to finish their work and solve this,” he asserted.
It is recalled that Turkey refused to approve the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO. It is asking Sweden to crack down on the activities of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and is also seeking the extradition of asylum seekers it says belong to an Islamic network that Turkey says is responsible for a violent 2016 coup attempt.
For the F-16 market
Referring to the issue of F-16s, the Turkish Defense Minister said he was “optimistic” that the US Congress would eventually give the green light for the sale of F-16s to Turkey. “We want to strengthen our military, and the US wants NATO countries to spend more on defense, but then they come and put restrictions on our own purchases of military hardware,” Akar said.
About the war in Ukraine
Regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Hulusi Akar stated that “someone has to talk to Russia… without this dialogue there would be a stalemate. We would expect the West to thank our president (s.s. speaking with Putin).”
At the same time, the Turkish minister refused to say whether any new Turkish military operation against the Kurds (YPG) in Syria is imminent.
Turkey now wants a “realignment” with Washington, Akar said. “The US is our strategic ally. Our history, our culture, our goals and values are common. When we are strong, NATO is strong,” concluded the Turkish Defense Minister.
Hulusi Akar will have a meeting today in Britain with his British counterpart, Ben Wallace.
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