TURKEY SUPPORTS UKRAINE OVER CRIMEA, THREATENS TO ABORT S-400 DEAL WITH RUSSIA

Ankara continues to support Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during the press-conference with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Kiev on October 9.

According to Erdogan, Ankara won’t recognize Crimea’s annexation. He said that Turkey supported the Crimean Tatars loyal to Ukraine, and declared that they intended to cooperate with Ukraine regarding the matter, despite him dozing off during the talks.

Poroshenko said that Turkey and Ukraine were focused on bilateral relations and economic cooperation.

The same day Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Ankara could back out of the deal with Russia to purchase S-400 air defense systems, unless Moscow shares the production technology. According to him Russian President Vladimir Putin said that joint production is a possibility.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in response “I can say that the contacts and negotiations are continuing at the expert level in the context of this deal.” The advance for the S-400 systems was apparently paid.

Turkey and Russia agreed on the terms of the deal in July, but it was finalized and signed in September. Vladimir Kozhin, Russian presidential aide for military-technical cooperation, said at the time that transfer of production technology had not been discussed.

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