Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was interviewed by Politico. He said he told «everyone that any restrictive measures against Turkey will destroy everything» and added that «this dialogue must be based on trust, so that no one can justify restrictive measures against Turkey.».
«We started to give positive signals because we took the joint statement of the December summit as a tense hand of the EU towards Turkey. That is why we responded,» the Turkish minister noted.
As the article states, he argued that the language used by EU leaders in October was merely «threatening», while the language used in December was «better», but still contained parts that Ankara did not agree with.
During the meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg , Mevlut Cavusoglu defended the purchase of the Russian S400 missile system, which worries NATO allies and prompted the US to impose sanctions on Ankara, Politico notes.
«We discussed it and I told him that our proposal to the previous administration is on the table, to set up a joint expert working group to look at the allegations of the United States very carefully and NATO should be on it,» he said, adding that “this is the only way we can continue to address this issue instead of sanctions.».
Finally, the Turkish Foreign Minister stressed that «what I said was very clear: if we do not have guarantees for the purchase of air defence systems from the United States... or from other allies... we have to look for other alternatives».
