U.S. Seeks to Divide Turkey Against Russia with S-400 Purchase Proposition - Ret. Turkish General

With Turkey having yet to activate its first S-400 air defence system, previously scheduled for entry into service in April, Washington has maintained considerable pressure on Ankara not to operationalise the system and to somehow dispose of it in order to avoid U.S. sanctions. An amendment to impose sanctions on Turkey under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) has been proposed by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch should Ankara fail to agree to Washington’s demands. Senator John Thune has more recently proposed that the U.S. could purchase the Russian made air defence systems, presumably to assess their capabilities and develop suitable countermeasures, passing an amendment to the draft law on budgetary allocations for 2021. The document did not indicate whether Ankara did indeed intend to make such a sale, which could seriously compromise its relations with Moscow and ensure that Turkey remains firmly in the Western sphere of influence. Purchases by the U.S. of advanced Russian air defence systems from Western aligned states is far from unprecedented, most notably the illegal sale of state of the art 2K12 platforms by Egypt  in the 1970s after Cairo’s defection to the Western Bloc which allowed the U.S. Military to develop sophisticated countermeasures. Retired Turkish Air Force Lieutenant General Erdogan Karakus commented on Washington’s proposal in an interview with Russian media that American rhetoric regarding the S-400 was intended to drive a wedge between Moscow and Ankara.

The retired general stated regarding the proposition to buy the S-400: 

“The U.S. goal is to disrupt Turkey and Russia’s relationship. It is trying to push the two countries against each other in Syria, Libya and several other directions. Washington's proposal for S-400 should not be accepted because otherwise, it would harm Turkish-Russian relations. This is what the U.S. side is actually pursuing.... This is an absolutely unacceptable proposal for Ankara. Russia put its trust in us and decided to supply us with these systems. This position of Moscow, as well as the air defence systems, is valuable for us. Therefore, Turkey should by no means lose Russia's trust because of the U.S. Only those states that are trusted in the international political arena are respected. And the U.S. proposal violates the sovereignty of the country and calls into question its reliability as a partner.” 

Karakus further stressed that after the U.S. expelled Turkey from the F-35 program, the issue was unlikely to be resolved soon. “I believe that the U.S. position on Turkey is largely related to the elections. Perhaps Trump, by putting pressure on Ankara, intends to gain an advantage in the elections”, he stated. The Turkish decision to purchase the S-400 over Western manufactured systems such as the Patriot and THAAD systems was widely seen as a major embarrassment for western defence producers, with the Russian system not only cheaper but also boasting multiple very significant performance advantages ranging from situational awareness and engagement range to mobility and versatility among others.