The U.S., which has given the green light for F-35 sales, has made a striking "Incirlik" condition.

A striking claim has emerged regarding the F-35 fighter jet sale, which has been a long-standing saga between Turkey and the USA. According to a report in the Greek newspaper Kathimerini, Washington is working on a new proposal.

THEY CONDITIONED INCIRLIK FOR F-35

Accordingly, US officials suggested the 'soft' deactivation of Russian missile systems to remove the obstacle to the sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey. The report stated that Turkey was required to either deliver the S-400s to the US or transfer them to the US-controlled sector at Incirlik Air Base in exchange for re-entering the F-35 program.

The report included the following statements: "As part of discussions that appear to be at a more advanced stage than previously known, senior US officials proposed the transfer of Russian systems to the US-controlled Incirlik base in southern Turkey. In this way, Turkey would avoid a return that would be equivalent to an international embarrassment from its perspective, but would not violate the terms of its contract with Russia or any binding provisions."

THE F-35 ISSUE BETWEEN THE US AND TURKEY

The US and NATO find Turkey's acquisition and use of the S-400 systems problematic. They argue that the S-400 air defense systems cannot be integrated into NATO's existing defense and radar systems in any way.

For this reason, on July 17, 2019, the US announced that it had removed Turkey from the production process of the F-35 next-generation fighter jets, of which it was a project partner. The justification was that the presence of the S-400 systems in Turkey posed a risk of sensitive information about the F-35s being stolen by Russia if used in the same environment.