The Turkish Military Keeps Trying to Buy Russian—And Keeps Shooting Itself in the Foot

Russian arms deals keep getting Turkey into trouble

Turkish F-16s. Via Wikimedia Commons

Despite playing a vital strategic role in safeguarding NATO’s southern flank since 1952 and possessing the alliance’s second-largest standing army, Turkey has at times turned to the Soviet Union and Russia for weapons.

But Moscow keeps botching the opportunity.

U.S.-Turkey relations hit a low point in 1975. Angered by Turkey’s use of American military hardware in its military intervention in Cyprus the year before, Washington imposed a complete arms embargo on Ankara. Turkey responded by closing dozens of U.S. military bases on Turkish soil, many of them electronic surveillance stations that monitored the Soviet Union.

The embargo dragged on for three years but failed to yield the desired results. It was “meant to coerce Turkey to the negotiating table and re-establish the status quo,” according to one assessment. “Instead, the result was severely strained relations, closure of and restrictions on U.S. facilities in Turkey, a weakened NATO and no progress on the underlying Cyprus issue.”