Turkey to seek for alternative in case not getting F-35 jets

By Tugrul Cam

TALLINN, Estonia / ANKARA, Turkey (AA) - Turkey needs warplane. If it does not get F-35 fighter jets, the country will seek for alternatives, but it does not prefer that, Turkey's foreign minister said on Wednesday.

The purchase of F-35 fighter jets is an urgent need for Turkey and it had to buy the S-400 missile defense system from Russia, Mevlut Cavusoglu said at a joint news conference with his Estonian counterpart Urmas Reinsalu in the capital Tallinn.

Nowadays, the U.S. is stirring up trouble. But Turkey is still part of this 9-partner F-35 program, Cavusoglu added.

Turkey produces some parts of the F-35 fighter jets and also is a partner of the F-35 program. It wants to buy F-35s, he said.

Touching on the relations between Turkey and Russia, he said Russia's presence in the region is a reality. ''Turkey has good economic relations with Russia.''

Moreover, he said even if some difficulties were faced in Syria due to Assad regime’s aggression, Turkey and Russia are trying to overcome them through the Astana and Sochi processes.

The Astana peace process, aimed at ending the Syrian conflict, was launched in January 2017 by Russia and Iran, allies of the regime, and Turkey. So far 13 rounds of talks have been conducted in Astana, Kazakhstan.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million others displaced, according to UN officials.