R elations between Ankara and Washington became tense again. Based on the agreement reached between Ankara and Moscow in 2017, Turkey purchased 4 divisions of S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems, the first delivery of which was scheduled in July 2019, and the second started on August 27 and ended on September 14. After the first supply in August 2020, it became clear, that Ankara is planning to purchase the second regiment of S-400 systems.

Through this cooperation, Turkey became the first country within NATO, which signed such a big military deal with Russia, causing the anger of the allies. Europe stated, that by this way Ankara was leaving NATO, and the Pentagon called for an end to the agreement. In response to it, Ankara accused NATO stressing that he had to make that decision, as he couldn’t obtain any anti-missile system from the member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization for a long time. Still in the 2000s, Turkey was trying to purchase Chinese  HQ-9 anti-aircraft systems, however this agreement was cancelled in 2015. Although the Turkish side gave various reasons, many linked it to NATO pressure. In the same year, the United States withdrew its Patriot anti-aircraft system from Turkey, by leaving the country without any modern air defense system. Hence Ankara purchased Russian anti-aircraft system as an alternative, accusing NATO and the United States of delaying the launching of anti-aircraft systems. According to Prime Minister Yıldırım the main reason for purchasing S-400 was the 71 missiles fired from Syria, which the Turkish side couldn’t neutralize because of not having a modern defense system, therefore no political context should be thought in this decision.

However, the deployment of Russian anti-aircraft system in Turkey have various political reasons. Currently, military cooperation has become the main way of political influence. With this deal, Ankara shew its “swing policy”, which worried the United States: as being a NATO member, Turkey is purchasing arms from “adversary” Russia. There were fears, that the Russian side could obtain information about the American F-35 through Turkey. In addition, this seriously affected the global security strategy in the Middle East, because before that Ankara was focused exclusively on NATO. Another issue was the cessation of military cooperation between Turkey and NATO member states after the failed revolution in 2016. Besides this, Russian anti-aircraft systems are cheaper than American ones.

The appearance of Russian air defense forces caused concern in our region. Baku was apprehensive about the information on the supply of Iskander OTRK to Armenia by Russia, threatening, that Russia’s intervention in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict may lead to the intervention by Turkey, hinting the use of S-400.

Also after the deployment of Russian air defense forces, the United States tried to take them out of Turkey. In 2019, during Erdogan-Trump meeting, there was talk of S-400, however, President of Turkey excluded to give them up. After the meeting, M. Cavusoglu announced, that Turkey is ready to acquire American arms besides the Russian ones. Ankara stated that currently the US pursues a softer policy, thus he is ready to sell them Patriot Air Missile Systems. However, a few days after this statement, Pentagon did the opposite, saying that Turkey will not get American Patriot, until it returned the S-400 to Russia. Washington even warned that because of the Russian weaponry, Turkey will be expelled from the co-production of the 5^th generation F-35 fighters. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also made a statement, stressing that Turkey’s acquisition of S-400 poses difficulties to NATO and can be a potential risk to allied aircrafts. He also talked about the US sanctions, the announcements of which were not late. Ignoring all the warnings, Turkey began testing Russian air defense systems in Sinop, which finally crossed out the United States. The State Department stated that now the package of sanctions against Turkey is on their table. In addition, the issue of providing other arms to NATO members who acquired Russian S-400 is revised. Erdogan however responded that he is not afraid of the US sanctions and instead of all these threats, they could be offered an alternative to Russian air-defense system. In turn, V. Putin expressed his satisfaction with having such a loyal counterpart as Turkey.