Turkey’s S-400 purchase ‘important step’ for security

By Muhammet Emin Avundukluoglu

ANKARA (AA) - A Turkish opposition lawmaker on Tuesday said that the country took an important step in securing its airspace by purchasing S-400 air defense missile systems.

Referring to Turkey's continued drilling activities in the eastern Mediterranean by using its rights based on international law, Erkan Akcay, deputy group chair of Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), said recent incidents "revealed the importance of purchasing S-400s in terms of our [Turkey's] national security."

Akcay accused opponents of Turkey's purchase of the Russian systems of advocating foreign rule.

- Erdogan-Trump meeting

During last week’s G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said U.S. President Donald Trump told him there would be no sanctions against Turkey after it received the S-400 defense systems.

"We are strategic partners with the U.S.," Erdogan said, adding that no country had right to interfere with Turkey's sovereign rights.

Tensions between the U.S. and Turkey have escalated in recent months over Ankara’s purchase of S-400 systems, which Washington said will jeopardize Turkey's role in the F-35 fighter jet program and could trigger sanctions.

At the summit, Trump blamed the standoff on then-President Barack Obama's refusal to sell Patriot missiles to Turkey, and said Turkey had not been treated fairly.