At a meeting with U.S. press members earlier this week, during an official trip to the U.S., in response to a question on Turkey’s purchase of S-400 missiles from Russia, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said they had no other choice, Hurriyet Daily News reports.
“We wanted to get it from NATO member countries, but failed to get the necessary support from the U.S.,” Yıldırım said.
“The fact that we have entered such a defense cooperation with Russia does not diminish our obligations or significance as a NATO member. Quite the contrary, it enhances them. We have no intention of giving up on NATO. We needed to move toward such a cooperation with Russia just to obliterate the threats against Turkey in the short term,” he added.
Yıldırım highlighted that Syria had become a place where some countries “test their new weapons” and that Turkey was not able to destroy 71 missiles fired on Turkish soil from there.
“We have lost 29 civilians because of those missiles. We must protect our land,” he said, adding the S-400 missiles were being purchased for defense reasons, not offense.
“The U.S. and NATO countries should carefully consider why we have had to resort to this path,” he said.
