Last week, the U.S. Senate Committee passed a bill which includes a measure to bar Turkey from purchasing F-35 jets.
“We say that the U.S. is our strategic partner. As our strategic partner, the U.S. should not say we should knock on another door,” Erdogan said.
“We are not interested with the Senate. There is only one thing that interests us. Have I discussed this with the president of the U.S.? I have. Have we talked about this in our inter-delegation meeting? We have.”
“If we are strategic partners, if we are model partners, the U.S. should not legally wrong us here,” Erdogan added.
In 2014, Turkey placed an order for the first two F-35 jets for a projected fleet of 100 F-35A aircraft and plans to deploy the aircraft by 2019.
The F-35s will replace the aging fleet of F-4 and F-16 aircraft. The first delivery of the F-35s to Turkey is slated for June 21.
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