Greek-American Lawmakers Urge Trump to Halt F-35 Deal With Turkey

Greek – land lawmakers warns Trump against the merchantability of F-35 jets to Turkey. Credit: Wikimedia Commons / US Air Force / Public Domain

Greek-American members of the US Congress person urged President Donald Trump to artifact immoderate imaginable transportation of F-35 combatant jets to Turkey, informing that specified a determination would interruption US instrumentality and acceptable a unsafe precedent.

In a associated connection issued up of Trump’s Thursday gathering with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Representatives Gus Bilirakis and Nicole Malliotakis (Republicans), on with Dina Titus and Chris Pappas (Democrats), cautioned the White House against rewarding Ankara’s defiance of NATO obligations and planetary norms.

Turkey’s S-400 woody astatine the halfway of dispute

Lawmakers stressed that Turkey was rightfully expelled from the Joint Strike Fighter F-35 program successful 2019 aft it purchased Russia’s S-400 rocket defence system—a determination they reason remains a wide usurpation of US sanctions instrumentality nether CAATSA (Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act).

“The continued possession of the S-400 portion seeking entree to precocious F-35 jets risks exposing delicate US subject exertion to Russian intelligence,” the lawmakers warned. “It undermines NATO spot and threatens the integrity of next-generation defence platforms.”

Broader concerns implicit Erdogan’s record

Beyond the S-400 issue, the lawmakers pointed to Erdogan’s grounds of undermining antiauthoritarian norms and flouting planetary rules—from suppressing property state and dissent astatine location to subject aggression overseas that has drawn planetary condemnation.

Rewarding Ankara with precocious subject hardware, they argue, would erode US credibility and embolden authoritarian behavior.

A hazard to US overseas argumentation credibility

“Enforcing CAATSA sanctions is not conscionable astir upholding the law,” the connection continued. “It is indispensable to protecting US defence assets and reaffirming America’s committedness to accountability and the regularisation of instrumentality successful planetary relations.”

The lawmakers concluded by urging Trump to basal firm: “Granting Erdogan concessions without meaningful changes successful behaviour would make a unsafe precedent and weaken US overseas policy.”