Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Sen. Bob Menendez opposes Turkey’s proposal to buy F-16s and modernization kits, calling for human rights improvements first even as the NATO ally is threatening to deepen its ties with the Russian defense industry.
“I personally am not supportive of giving them F-16s,” Menendez told Air Force Magazine during a visit to Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.
“I just really have a problem,” he said. “This is not the Turkey that we aspire for, is not the type of NATO ally that is behaving in a way that we should be able to go ahead and give it some of the most sophisticated fighting equipment.”
At issue are Turkey’s human rights record and foreign policy positions.
The moment of the savage massacre of a young Turk by a man with a samurai sword (disturbing video)
Menendez said Turkey has jailed more lawyers and journalists “than almost any place in the world.” He also said Turkey takes adverse positions to U.S. interests in places such as Libya, where it has violated sanctions to send military aid to the UN-backed Government of National Accord. Turkey also has menaced U.S. support for the Kurdish militia group YPG in northern Syria, calling the group terrorists and pushing it back from the border as the U.S. tries to coordinate with the YPG to fight the Islamic State group.
Read more: Air Force Mag
