Turkey's acquisiton of S-400 marks a break in relations between the country and NATO

The Turkish decision on get the Defense Systems S-400, from Russia, and ended the laces between Turkey and USA, accusing the Turkish government to threatens the stablishment of NATO, according to the American Military.

According to him the acquiring of these systems is adversarial to the NATO Politics, relatively to the use of Russian military systems and it's unaceptable. In decades there is no tension between NATO and Russia, according to General Jack Keane.

According to him, Washington is rigth on suspend Ankara to the F-35 Program, but this decision put NATO to a problem. Keane uses the prerrogative that the only Muslim country could be a strategically well positioned to the gates of Eurasia and the way to the Middle East to diplomatic resolutions. Turkey wasn't faithful to NATO for a while, as it's positioned to Iran, Syria and Russia in the relations to the politics of Middle East and the Syrian War.

White House announced that is impossible the continuation of the country on participate the F-35 program, after the first receive of the S-400. Since 2017 Ankara signed the contract to Moscow of 2,5 million Dollars to the acquisiton of these defense system anti-missiles, and one year after, after the USA offered the contract to aquiring the Patriot system, the Turkish authorities didn't agreed the contracts, rejoicing about the better contitions of the Russian system.

The system will be operating at the begining of the 2020. 

The media news Turkiye considered the acquisition of these system as a good signal and put the importance of it at the highlight.

The article promotes the comparing of dates with the trying of a Cup D'Etat that the agency called occupation. The agency promotes that with the system of Russia and F-35 program, together the NATO capability, the interest on a better geopolitical capability on influence. The agency remembered that the cup d'etat happened standed by Russia, USA and Israel, but the last ones realizing the intense work on reconigtion and intelligence in Eurasia, using the trying of take off Erdogan as an oportunity.

Turkey Receives Russian Missile System, Risking U.S. Sanctions

Shipment of S-400 system marks the latest in a series of divergences between the U.S. and Turkey

https://www.wsj.com/articles/turkey-starts-taking-delivery-of-russian-air-defense-missile-system-risking-u-s-sanctions-and-testing-its-position-in-nato-11562920372

By David Gauthier-Villars in Istanbul and Ann M. Simmons in Moscow

Updated July 12, 2019 5:20 pm ET

Turkey began receiving a sophisticated new air-defense missile system from Russia that Washington regards as a security threat, potentially exposing Ankara to U.S. sanctions and testing its position in NATO.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says the $2.5 billion shipment of the S-400 system was a sovereign decision that can’t be dictated by Washington or Turkey’s other military allies in the West.

But the U.S. government is warning that Turkey could face sanctions if it deployed the Russian defense system and could lose access to America’s F-35 stealth jet fighter, which Ankara has on order.

The events in the coming weeks could determine the future of U.S.-Turkish relations, and raise questions about Turkey’s long-term role in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as Russia attempts to build on its own influence in the country in a bid to weaken the alliance.

Turkey’s decision to source critical weapons from Russia is a setback for the U.S., which courted Ankara throughout the Cold War for its strategic location on the southwestern flank of the Soviet empire. It is also an economic issue. The U.S. and Russia are world’s biggest arms exporters and their contractors compete for dominance in the sector.

Missile Matchup

The S-400 hasn’t been tested in battle but on paper it outperforms the comparable U.S.-made Patriot system. Turkey, which had originally sought to buy the Patriot, has begun receiving the Russian system despite the threat of U.S. sanctions.

“We are aware of reports that Turkey has taken delivery of the S-400,” said a senior Trump administration official. “As the President said at the G-20 ahead of meeting with Erdogan, ‘It’s a problem, there’s no question about it.’”

A NATO official said the alliance was “concerned about the potential consequences of Turkey’s decision to acquire the S-400 system,” noting the need for allied weapons systems to operate together.

Reflecting bipartisan opposition in Washington to Turkey’s move, the Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees called on Mr. Trump to impose sanctions on Ankara and end Turkey’s participation in the F-35 program.

The S-400 issue has further roiled years of frayed U.S.-Turkey relations. U.S. officials still recall a key breaking point in 2003 when Turkish officials refused to allow U.S. troops to use Turkey as a launchpad for the invasion of Iraq. American presidents have tried repeatedly to reset relations with Turkey, only to hit new snags.

Former President Obama’s initial strong relationship with Mr. Erdogan was strained by the U.S. decision to arm and train Syrian Kurdish fighters in the battle against Islamic State that Turkey views as terrorists. The same issue has dogged relations between Messrs. Trump and Erdogan.

The relationship also was strained by an American refusal to deport a U.S.-based cleric who Mr. Erdogan accuses of fomenting a failed coup in 2016 that led Mr. Erdogan to impose mass arrests and purges. The cleric, Fethullah Gulen, denies the accusation.

Last summer, Washington imposed sanctions on Turkey when Ankara failed to release an American pastor who had been detained as part of the post-coup sweeps. Turkey eventually released the pastor, Andrew Brunson, and the U.S. partly lifted the sanctions, but the episode left scars, say U.S. diplomats.

Any fresh U.S. sanctions could hammer a Turkish economy that is already straining under double-digit inflation and unemployment that has reached near 10-year highs in recent months.

“There is very difficult time ahead for Turkey,” said Nihat Ali Ozcan, an analyst at Ankara-based think tank Tepav.

The precise range of sanctions the U.S. could apply is unclear. After Mr. Trump met with Mr. Erdogan in Japan last month, he said he was considering ways to resolve the issue. Turkish officials have said the arrival of a new U.S. ambassador, David Satterfield, to Ankara this week after a nearly two-year absence of a top American diplomat, would help smooth communications.

U.S. officials and lawmakers, however, said a response is inevitable.

“By accepting delivery of the S-400 from Russia, President Erdogan has chosen a perilous partnership with Putin at the expense of Turkey’s security, economic prosperity and the integrity of the NATO alliance,” said a joint statement by Sens. Jim Risch (R., Idaho), Bob Menendez (D., N.J.), Jim Inhofe (R., Okla.) and Jack Reed (D., R.I.).

The Pentagon, which has already halted the training of Turkish pilots on F-35s, is mainly concerned with the radar capabilities of the S-400 system, which U.S. officials say could be used by Russia to spy on and assess the threat from the stealthy jets. Turkey could face sanctions under a 2017 federal law for procuring weapons from a blacklisted supplier.

“Turkey will face real and negative consequences if they accept the S-400,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said Tuesday. “Those consequences include participation in the F-35 program.”

A dispute over the F-35, in which Turkey could be blocked as a customer and a significant parts supplier, could return U.S.-Turkey relations to their mid-1970s level, diplomat say. At that time, Washington imposed an embargo on military aid after Turkish forces seized part of the Mediterranean island of Cyprus in its dispute with Greece.

Turkish officials said they turned to Russia for air-defense equipment after the U.S. declined to sell Turkey the Patriot antimissile system. The Trump administration subsequently offered to sell the system last year, but Mr. Erdogan last month said the proposal had fallen short of the deal offered by Russia.

Turkey’s S-400s will be of little use if they can’t be fed with critical data from aircraft with early-detection capabilities, such as F-35s, or NATO’s network of spy satellites, analysts say. Turkey’s regional rivals such as Syria and Iran are also largely equipped by Russia, which could limit any air superiority Turkey could gain with the S-400s.

On Friday, however, Turkish television broadcast in loop footage of a Russian Air Force cargo plane landing at an air base near Ankara, with ground crew unloading military trucks and parts.

“For the political elite of both countries, for Erdogan and Putin, it became kind of a symbol of their resistance of Western hegemony,” said Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, a think tank in Moscow. “That’s why they try to peddle the deal by showing both the internal and external public…that surrender is not an option.”

The S-400 reflects growing cooperation between Turkey and Russia, including construction of the Russia-financed Akkuyu nuclear power plant, Turkey’s first such facility, and the TurkStream natural-gas pipeline that runs from Russia to Turkey.

Analysts said Moscow might use the sale of the S-400 system to secure other big defense contracts with Turkey, driving a wedge between Ankara and other NATO members and casting itself as a dependable military partner.

Moscow already has suggested Turkey buy its new-generation Su-57 jet fighter if the U.S. takes the F-35 off the table. The U.S. initially planned to sell 116 of the fighters to Turkey. Mr. Erdogan has also floated the idea of cooperating with Russia to build the planned successor to the S-400 air-defense system, the S-500.

Making good on the delivery of the S-400s “shows the whole world that Russia is a reliable supplier,” Mr. Pukhov said. “Imagine: Turkey was a longstanding partner for F-35s, paid down-payments, and the United States refused to deliver.”

Deployed across Russia, from its Kaliningrad exclave in the Baltics to Vladivostok in the Far East, the S-400 has also become a successful export product. In addition to Turkey, Russia has sold the weapon to China and India. Saudi Arabia, one of the top buyers of U.S. military equipment, is in talks with Moscow over a possible S-400 purchase.

Russian state-owned holding conglomerate Rostec said earlier this year that as of late 2018 its arms export order book exceeded $51 billion, a record for the past 10 years, with S-400 supply contracts accounting for some of the largest deals.

Turkish officials say closer ties with the Kremlin are compatible with NATO membership, and have expressed interest in not being entirely dependent on Russia for air-defense equipment. While taking delivery of the S-400, Turkey has been pursuing talks with France and Italy over the joint production of a rival European system. Industrial partners in the project are expected to submit a detailed study on how to divide workload in the autumn, according to European officials.

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said Friday that Ankara had not closed the door to buying Patriots from the U.S.

“Regarding this subject, we’re working intensively with our [U.S.] friends,” the minister said.

—Dion Nissenbaum and James Marson in Washington contributed to this article.

Write to David Gauthier-Villars at David.Gauthier-Villars@wsj.com and Ann M. Simmons at ann.simmons@wsj.com