Sources from the Ministry of Defense of Turkey characterize the possibility of Cyprus joining NATO as an unacceptable development for Turkey.
Sources of the Turkish Ministry of Defense argue that it will negatively affect developments in the Cyprus conflict. The same sources say that Turkey's request for the supply of 40 F-35 fighters has been officially conveyed to its interlocutors in the US.
In response to a Turkish journalist's question about the pending accession of the Republic of Cyprus to NATO, sources from the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs specifically state that "Turkey, as a NATO member country, recalls that the decisions to expand the alliance are taken unanimously and maintains that these procedures must be carried out taking into account the national security concerns of any country. At the present time, the application of the Greek Cypriot administration for NATO membership is an unacceptable development for Turkey. This initiative will disturb the delicate balance in the Cyprus issue and will negatively affect the negotiation processes for a solution".
Sources of the Ministry in questions about the supply of F-16 BLOCK 70 / EUROFIGHTER / F-35 said that "according to the needs of our Air Force Command, our efforts are to include modern combat aircraft equipped with advanced technology and to diversify the stockpile until our national aircraft KAAN is put into service.'
In this context, they added, "the contract entered into force with an initial payment of 1,4 billion. dollars for the supply of 40 F-16 Block 70 and special munitions while the technical negotiations for the supply of 40 Eurofighters continue positively.
They further stated that “our request for 40 F-35s has been officially conveyed to our interlocutors. Regarding the F-35, we have made a payment in the past and there are 6 aircraft that have gone into the hangar. However, for the first time there was no delivery to a NATO member country (CAATSA) due to sanctions. We have been saying from the beginning that this sanction is wrong. Our expectation is that our allies will take decisions in accordance with the spirit of the alliance and the common security perspective and that all implicit or explicit sanctions will be lifted."
