US representatives keep up pressure for strings on F-16 sale to Turkey
A bipartisan group of 22 representatives has sent a letter to the US Congress and Senate urging lawmakers to maintain a provision in the final draft of America’s defense spending bill attaching conditions to the sale of F-16 fighter jets and upgrade kits to Turkey.
“The purpose of Section 1271 is clear and narrowly tailored. At a time when we must be promoting NATO alliance unity we should ensure that American weapons are not being used for belligerent actions within the alliance,” says the letter to the Senate and House armed services committees, which was drafted on the initiative of Chris Pappas, a member of the Congressional Caucus on Hellenic Issues and one of the original authors of the amendment.
“Turkey has used its existing F-16 fleet to repeatedly violate Greece’s sovereignty and territorial airspace, undermining the very NATO alliance unity considerations that led the US to consider F-16 sales and upgrades to Turkey despite its continued violation of the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA),” the letter says.
“Turkey’s membership in NATO cannot and should not shield the Erdogan government from being held responsible for its behavior by US policymakers, and its increasingly belligerent behavior towards Greece – a truly reliable, democratic NATO ally – cannot be ignored,” it adds.
The representatives go on to stress that “it is incumbent upon the Administration to provide clarification as to how US-provided F-16s will not be used as a tool by one NATO ally to violate the sovereignty of another, especially given the very real risk of conflict between the two. If Turkey ceases its territorial overflights, its return to the values and respect for the rule of law the alliance is founded upon will be a welcomed one. Furthermore, tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean would greatly diminish, allowing the US and our NATO allies to solely focus on the existential threat of Russia’s continued invasion of Ukraine.”
Among those who joined Pappas in signing his letter are Reps. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), David Cicilline (D-RI), Jim Costa (D-CA) Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Susie Lee (D-NV), Ted Lieu (D-CA), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Jim McGovern (D-MA), Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL), John Sarbanes (D-MD), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Chris Smith (R-NJ), Dina Titus (D-NV) and Lori Trahan (D-MA).
