{"id":2375,"date":"2022-04-08T14:01:04","date_gmt":"2022-04-08T21:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/?p=2375"},"modified":"2022-04-08T21:37:08","modified_gmt":"2022-04-09T04:37:08","slug":"a-bad-deal-aca-urges-congress-to-block-deadly-weapons-sale-to-turkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/a-bad-deal-aca-urges-congress-to-block-deadly-weapons-sale-to-turkey\/","title":{"rendered":"A Bad Deal: ACA Urges Congress to Block Deadly Weapons Sale to Turkey"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON, DC \u2014 The Biden administration has articulated in a March 17th<\/sup> letter to Congress that the potential sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey would benefit both the United States and NATO, particularly following Russia\u2019s unprovoked assault on Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Administration believes that there are nonetheless compelling long-term NATO alliance unity and capability interests, as well as U.S. national security, economic and commercial interests that are supported by appropriate U.S. defense trade ties with Turkey,\u201d read a letter penned by Naz Durako\u011flu, a senior advisor in the State Department to Congressman Frank Pallone (NJ-06), Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.<\/p>\n

The correspondence was sent to Rep. Pallone in response to a bipartisan letter dated February 4th<\/sup>, led by both he and Congressman Gus M. Bilirakis (FL-12), that urged the Biden administration to rethink supplying Turkey with the 40 F-16 jets and nearly 80 modernization kits it requested near the end of 2021. More than 50 congressmen from the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues and the Congressional Hellenic Caucus signed their name to the letter, citing Turkey\u2019s deployment of Russian S-400s missile defense systems and copious human rights violations as reasons to oppose the sale.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe purchase of advanced fighter jets from the United States for Turkey\u2019s military arsenal will not incentivize Erdo\u011fan to change course and become a good actor. It will more likely lead to further death and destruction in the region at the hands of his military,\u201d the lawmakers wrote.<\/p>\n

The recent letter sent by Durako\u011flu to Rep. Pallone claims that Turkey\u2019s removal from the F-35 fifth-generation fighter jet program is a \u201csignificant price paid\u201d for the S-400 purchase. She highlighted Turkey\u2019s active contributions to NATO, stating: \u201cTurkey is a longstanding NATO ally with the second-largest army in the alliance. It\u2019s an active contributor to NATO missions, including most recently in Eastern Europe, the Black Sea, the Balkans and Afghanistan. Turkey\u2019s support for Ukraine\u2019s territorial integrity and cooperative defense relations are an important deterrent to malign influence in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is disappointing to hear that the Biden Administration thinks that selling advanced weaponry, including modernized F-16s that may contain sensitive F-35 components, is going to advance U.S. and NATO interests in the long run.,\u201d stated Armenian Council of America (ACA) Chairman Sevak Khatchadorian. \u201cThe letter showcases a 20th century approach to dealing with the Turkey of today, and we all know how well that strategy played out. This is a bad deal and it\u2019s bad for America. We urge Congress to block this deadly weapons sale to the Erdogan regime should President Biden pursue it.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a grassroots organization, ACA is dedicated to working with all political leaders, offering Armenian related news, analysis and resources for policymakers, media, students and activists, advocating issues important to Armenian Americans. The ACA also aims to strengthen U.S. \u2013 Armenia and U.S. \u2013 Artsakh ties, the development of programs promoting sustainable economic growth and good governance in Armenia, while promoting the values and responsibilities of global citizenship. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON, DC \u2014 The Biden administration has articulated in a March 17th letter to Congress…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2376,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-press-releases"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/turkeys-f-16.jpg",800,487,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/turkeys-f-16-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/turkeys-f-16-250x152.jpg",250,152,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/turkeys-f-16-768x468.jpg",640,390,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/turkeys-f-16-400x244.jpg",400,244,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/turkeys-f-16.jpg",800,487,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/turkeys-f-16.jpg",800,487,false],"covernews-slider-full":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/turkeys-f-16.jpg",800,487,false],"covernews-slider-center":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/turkeys-f-16.jpg",800,487,false],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/turkeys-f-16.jpg",800,487,false],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/turkeys-f-16-540x340.jpg",540,340,true],"covernews-medium-square":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/turkeys-f-16-400x250.jpg",400,250,true],"rpwe-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/turkeys-f-16-45x45.jpg",45,45,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"ArmenianCouncil","author_link":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/author\/armeniancouncil\/"},"category_info":"News<\/a> Press Releases<\/a>","tag_info":"Press Releases","comment_count":0,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/turkeys-f-16.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2375"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2378,"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2375\/revisions\/2378"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}