Turkey signs deal to buy Russian S-400 air defense systems

Turkey has signed a deal with Russia to buy S-400 missile defense systems in its first major weapons purchase from Moscow, Turkish newspapers quote President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying.

The accord for the surface-to-air missile defense batteries is also Ankara’s most significant deal with a non-NATO supplier.

“Signatures have been made for the purchase of S-400s from Russia. A deposit has also been paid as far as I know,” Erdogan says in comments published in the Hurriyet daily and other newspapers.

“(Russian President Vladimir Putin) and myself are determined on this issue,” he tells journalists.

The purchase of the missile systems from a non-NATO supplier will raise concerns in the West over their technical compatibility with the alliance’s equipment.

The Pentagon has already sounded the alarm, saying bluntly that “generally it’s a good idea” for NATO allies to buy inter-operable equipment.

Erdogan says Turkey is free to make military acquisitions based on its defense needs.

“Nobody has the right to discuss the Turkish republic’s independence principles or independent decisions about its defense industry,” he says in the comments published today.

— AFP