Erdogan: Anyway, I will get back the money we paid for the F-35

According to Fars News Agency’s International Group, the Turkish President said in a statement on the dispute over the purchase of F-35 fighter jets from the United States, which has become a tension in relations between the two countries, that he believes Turkey and the United States will make progress in negotiations to sell F-16 fighter jets. And Ankara takes back $ 1.4 billion it paid to buy the blocked F-35 fighter jets.

“We will receive $ 1.4 billion in any way,” Erdogan told reporters on his way back from Nigeria, Reuters reported quoting Turkey’s Anatolia news agency.

“I believe we will make progress,” he added. Of course, we will talk about this with Biden at the G20 summit in Rome.

Earlier, in the wake of Western media reports that Ankara had requested the purchase of 40 F-16 fighter jets from Washington, the Turkish president announced that the United States had offered to invest in Ankara for the F-35 project to buy the F-16 from the United States. to be used.

But the US government on Monday evening rejected Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s claims that Washington had offered to sell F-16 fighter jets to Ankara.

“We refer you to the Turkish government to discuss its military procurement plans,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told a news conference. “What I can say is that the United States has not made any financial offer for Turkey to request the F-16.”

Asked whether the money paid by Turkey to buy F-35 fighter jets could be used to sell F-16s to Turkey, Price said: “The Ministry of Defense is still involved in the dispute settlement mechanism with Turkey over the F-35. “But I do not intend to prejudge the outcome.”

Earlier, Western media reported that Turkey had requested the purchase of 40 F-16 fighter jets and about 80 fighter jet refurbishment kits from the United States.

Ankara had previously ordered more than 100 F-35 fighter jets to be built by Lockheed Martin, but in 2019 Washington withdrew Turkey after purchasing Russian S-400 missile defense systems.

The President of the Republic of Turkey asked the United States to return the money paid to Turkey after it withdrew from the project to build the F-35 fighter.

“We paid $ 1.4 billion,” Erdogan said of Turkey’s exclusion from the F-35 fighter project. What about this money? We did not get this money easily. “They either have to give us our planes or return our money.”

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