Turkey Expects F-35 Delivery Soon, But Greeks, Armenians Seek to Block Deal
The Turkish armed forces are expecting to take delivery of their first F-35 joint strike fighters before the end of 2018, according to Turkish daily Yeni Safak.
Turkey has committed to buying around 100 of the expensive fifth-generation aircraft. So far, though, Ankara has allocated funds for only 30 F-35s.
Turkish firms Alp Aviation, Aselsan, Ayesas, Fokker Elmo, Havelsan, Kale Aerospace, MiKES, Tubitak-SAGE and Turkish Aerospace Industries stand to rake in about $12 billion in profit from their participation in the F-35 program, according to Lockheed Martin's website.
But that's only if Greece and Armenia don't get in their way. Greek and Armenian lobbies launched a campaign petitioning the US Senate to block the sale of F-35s to Ankara in February.
According to Endy Zemenides, executive director of the Hellenic American Leadership Council, "There will be very strong opposition in Congress — which already acted against small arms sales to Turkish security forces — and in which measures challenging the F-35 transfer have been circulated," the lobbyist said February 20, noting that Turkey's opponents in Washington are "growing in numbers" while "congressmen willing to defend Turkey are in pretty short supply nowadays."
Following an incident in which security forces travelling with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan came to the US capital and beat peaceful US and Kurdish protesters as well as police officers in Northwest Washington, a House lawmaker sought to block the proposed sale of F-35s to Ankara, the Hill reported.
The Greek and Armenian lobbies have renewed their advocacy efforts to convince the Senate to officially pull the plug on the deal, as
reported by Sputnik.
US Must Halt F-35 Sales to Turkey Over ‘Dangerous’ Provocations - Greek Lobby
A Greek-American lobbying organization and the Armenian National Committee of America have launched an effort to halt the sale of 100 F-35 aircraft to Washington’s NATO ally Turkey over Ankara’s “consistently and steadily more dangerous” provocations, a Greek-American lobbyist said recently.
"We have gone beyond the over-the-top rhetoric used by Turkey, which seems to want to compete with North Korea for most provocative declarations: Its actions in the Aegean [Sea], its formal action in terms of navtexes (navigational text messages) and notams (notices to airmen) and its deploying naval forces against energy exploration in Cyprus' exclusive economic zone are inviting an escalation that might make the 1996 Imia crisis look tame," Endy Zemenides, executive director of the Hellenic American Leadership Council, told the Greek publication Kathimerini on Tuesday.
Zemenides referred to a crisis in 1996 in which Turkey and Greece nearly engaged in a military conflict over a territorial dispute about a pair of uninhabited islands in the Aegean Sea, which mostly separates the two countries.
Congress has already shown a willingness to halt arms deliveries to Turkey. The US Senate voted to block a $1.2 million deal to sell Turkey semi-automatic handguns and ammunition last September following the assault of US protesters and police officers by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's security detail during a visit to Washington last May.
"There will be very strong opposition in Congress — which already acted against small arms sales to Turkish security forces — and in which measures challenging the F-35 transfer have been circulated," the lobbyist said, noting that Turkey's opponents in Washington are "growing in numbers" while "Congressmen willing to defend Turkey are in pretty short supply nowadays."
"Turkey has been an unreliable ally," Zemenides added. "Turkey was ambivalent in fighting ISIS [Daesh], which forced the US to seek other allies. When the Kurds emerged as the most effective anti-ISIS allies, Turkey took military action against them. Right now, the US cannot ignore that its weapons are being used by a nominal ally to undermine its strategic goals and interests."
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