The United States will likely impose harsh sanctions on Turkey over the purchase of Russian S-400 missile systems as relations between the NATO allies near an emotional break, analyst Soner Çağaptay said in an interview with the Voice of America on Tuesday.
Ankara has repeatedly said there would be no turning back on its $2.5 billion with Moscow for the Russian missile defences, despite Western attempts to dissuade it. U.S. Congress passed legislation last year to block the delivery of F-35 jets to Turkey should the Turkish government take delivery of the S-400, and Turkey’s NATO allies are concerned the system could collect data on NATO jets and undermine their defences.
Washington’s reaction to the S-400s issue will be much more negative than what Ankara expects, said Çağaptay, the director of the Turkish Research Program at The Washington Institute for Near Eastern Policy.
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