Turkish Defence Industry Directorate Ismail Demir sent a chilling warning to his country’s opponents stating that Turkey hadn’t just bought the Russian missiles for show, and that they would be put into use. He told CNN: “It is not a correct approach to say ‘we won’t use them for their sake’ about a system that we bought out of necessity and paid so much money for. “We have allied relations with Russia and the United States. We have to go on and respect the agreements we signed.”
Turkey’s S-400 deal with Mr Putin aggravated its NATO allies amid security concerns that the missiles could be used by the Kremlin to gather intelligence on weapons used by Western nations.
This included the F-35 fighter jet, which Mr Erdogan has also maintained he is interested in, as well as US Patriot missile systems.
But the latest Moscow-Ankara agreement will infuriate those in washington even more, as Turkey is reportedly cooperating with Russia to build new fighter jets.
According to Russian news agency TASS, Head of Russia’s Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation Dmitry Shugayev told reporters on Sunday the plan was of interest to Moscow.
“Given its competence in manufacturing the fifth-generation jet, Russia could take part in this project: in particular, this cooperation is possible in a range of the jet’s systems.
“However, it’s early to say that substantive talks have been launched on creating a new jet by Russia and Turkey.”
Some experts believe that Mr Erdogan is attempting to attain weapons from both Russia and the US in what would be a difficult political balancing act.
One NATO insider told Express.co.uk that this plan by Turkey’s government was ridiculous.
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Mr Townsend, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO Policy, said that Turkey are posing an “internal threat” to NATO.
“The threat that Turkey poses is an internal one, where the alliance has to figure out ‘what do you do with an ally who is beginning to act not in the best interest of the alliance?’
“The S-400 example is something were Erdogan feels his interests are better suited to working with Putin, and getting the S-400 to work with Moscow.
“The Turks and the Russians are using each other for their own ends, that’s what we are seeing happen here.”
Mr Trump may be livid with his Turkish counterpart, but Mr Erdogan is showing no signs of letting up in his quest for military power.