• Tweeter
  • republish

Russia began delivering its first missiles to Turkey on Friday (July 12th). HANDOUT / TURKISH DEFENSE MINISTRY / AFP

Russia calls it the "S-400 Triumph System", but the Atlantic Alliance calls it "SA-21". This is the choice of Turkey and the first deliveries of batteries and radar stations began Friday, July 12, to the fury of the United States. A diplomatico-military crisis that clearly hampers NATO.

Ankara has chosen to equip itself with the state-of-the-art air defense system developed by the Russian arms industry, the S-400 "Triumph", considered by the experts as equivalent or even superior to the US "Patriot" system, but for a lower cost. Deliveries started Friday.

These first deliveries of Russian missiles to Turkey are an embarrassment for NATO, torn between its concern for the weapon systems of the Allies and the need not to put a member country on the hot seat, explains our correspondent in Brussels - where is the headquarters of the Alliance - Pierre Benazet .

The Antarctic Alliance can not afford to discredit Turkey, which remains an ally on the same footing as the other 28 member countries. NATO headquarters therefore decided to speak on condition of anonymity, to express its " concern over the potential consequences of the Turkish decision ".

The fear of the "Trojan horse" in the ranks of the Atlantic Alliance

These consequences relate to one of the pillars of NATO's weapons policy , the concept of interoperability. " Each of the Alliance countries is free to decide what military equipment they buy, " says NATO, but the fact remains that the equipment must be compatible and interoperable with each other.

This should not be the case for Russian missiles. But in fact, the real fear is the reverse, namely that Turkey is networking its Russian system with its other weapon systems purchased from NATO countries, led by the United States. Some in Brussels believe it would be like a "Trojan horse".

The concern is that by doing so Turkey will allow the Russian arms industry to know the functioning of Allied armaments and seek to make them vulnerable. Hence the fury of Washington, and this zizanie within the Atlantic Alliance, which can only rejoice the Russian Federation.

New evidence of the pectacular turnaround between Moscow and Ankara

With these purchases, Moscow manages to get closer to Turkey, and to distance it a little more from the Americans. Russia is winning on all fronts, observes our correspondent in Moscow Daniel Vallot , who says that nothing on the industrial and financial, this success is valued at more than 2 billion dollars.

This case of S-400, flagship of Russian armaments already sold to China and India in the past, vividly confirms that Moscow and Ankara have fully reconciled since the 2015 crisis between the two countries, when a Russian plane had been shot down by Turkey, not far from the Syrian border.

This is very important for Moscow because Russia has made Turkey a key partner in its policy in the Middle East. Especially in the Syrian file.

In Turkey, the government, but also a large part of the population, see the United States as a partner that is unreliable: the support of Washington for the Kurds in Syria, the lack of empathy of Washington for the case of Fethullah Gülen who continues to live in the United States ...

Any sanctions will reinforce an anti-Trump and anti-American sentiment in Turkey, judge Sinan Ulgen, president of the Edam think tank and associate researcher at the Carnegie Europe Foundation 13/07/2019 - by Anissa El Jabri