ISTANBUL: The close relationship between US President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has brought the countries closer to resolving issues that led to Turkiye being kicked off the F-35 fighter jet program, the United States ambassador to Ankara said Wednesday.
“The positive relationship between President Trump and President Erdogan has created a new atmosphere of cooperation, which has led to the most fruitful conversations we have had on this topic in nearly a decade,” Ambassador Tom Barrack wrote in a social media post.
During Trump’s first term, the US removed NATO ally Turkiye from the next-generation fighter program after Turkiye purchased an air defense system from Russia. US officials worried that Turkiye’s use of Russia’s S-400 missile system could be used to gather data on the capabilities of the F-35 and that the information could end up in Russian hands.
Ankara has long sought to be readmitted to the project, which was developed by the US and other NATO members. Erdogan has said Turkiye invested $1.4 billion before it was suspended from the program in 2019. The US also imposed sanctions on Turkiye under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act the following year.
Barrack, who is also Trump’s special envoy for Syria, said there were “ongoing discussions with Türkiye regarding their desire to rejoin the F-35 program and their possession of the Russian-made S-400 air defense system.”
Using the Turkish government’s preferred spelling for Turkiye, he said the “positive relationship” between Trump and Erdogan had “created a new atmosphere of cooperation, which has led to the most fruitful conversations we have had on this topic in nearly a decade.
“Our hope is that these talks will yield a breakthrough in the coming months that meets both the security requirements of the United States and Türkiye.”
While it has been excluded from receiving F-35s, Turkiye has been looking elsewhere to bolster its air force, including Eurofighter Typhoons and US-made F-16s. It is developing its own fifth-generation KAAN fighter jet, which is expected to enter service in 2028.
In a meeting with Erdogan at the White House in September, Trump signaled that the US might soon lift the ban on sales of F-35s to Ankara. The two leaders forged what Trump has described as a “very good relationship” during his first White House term.
The Obama and Biden administrations kept Erdogan, who has ruled Turkiye for 22 years, at arm’s length. US officials cited concerns about Turkiye’s human rights record and the country’s ties with Russia. Tensions between Turkiye and Israel, another important American ally, have made relations difficult with Turkiye at times.
Trump sees Erdogan as an intermediary in his efforts to find ends to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. US and European leaders have followed Erdogan in embracing Syria’s new interim government.
US ambassador to Ankara says Trump is moving closer to resolving Turkiye’s F-35 ban
https://arab.news/z65sc
US ambassador to Ankara says Trump is moving closer to resolving Turkiye’s F-35 ban
- In a meeting with Erdogan at the White House in September, Trump signaled that the US might soon lift the ban on sales of F-35s to Ankara
Russia sentences Briton who fought for Ukraine to 13 years in prison camp
- The jailed Briton was named as 30-year-old Hayden Davies by Russia’s Prosecutor General
- State prosecutors released a video of Davies being questioned as he stood behind bars
MOSCOW: A British man who fought for Ukraine against the Russian army has been sentenced to 13 years in a maximum security prison camp after being convicted of being a paid mercenary, Russian prosecutors said on Thursday.
The jailed Briton was named as 30-year-old Hayden Davies by Russia’s Prosecutor General which said he had been tried by a court in a part of Russian-controlled Donetsk, one of four Ukrainian regions which Moscow claimed as its own in 2022 in a move Kyiv and the West rejected an illegal land grab.
State prosecutors released a video of Davies being questioned as he stood behind bars, dressed in a black coat and with a shaven head. He says in the video that he had traveled to Ukraine to join the International Legion which paid him $400-500 per month.
The International Legion for the Defense of Ukraine is a unit of the Ukrainian military made up of foreign volunteers.
Asked if he pleaded guilty to the charge against him, Davies says “yeah” and nods his head.
It was not clear whether Davies was speaking under duress and there was no immediate comment from the British Foreign Office.
London in February said Davies was not a mercenary but a Prisoner of War entitled to protection under the Geneva Conventions. It also condemned what it called Moscow’s exploitation of prisoners of war “for political and propaganda purposes.”
Russian prosecutors said on Thursday that Davies had arrived in western Ukraine in August 2024, signed a contract to fight for the International Legion, undergone military training, and then fought against the Russian army in Donetsk.
Davies had been captured by Russia in winter 2024 carrying a US-made assault rifle and ammunition, they said.
British media have reported that Davies once served in the British army and is married and originally from Southampton.
A Russian court jailed another British man, James Scott Rhys Anderson, for 19 years in March after finding him guilty of fighting for Ukraine in the Kursk region of western Russia.
