The State Department said in a post on X that it had “authorized a proposed Foreign Military Sale #FMS to #Türkiye for their purchase up to 40 new F-16s and the upgrade of 79 of its existing aircraft and related equipment and services for an estimated cost of up to $23 billion.”
Turkey’s request to buy the fighter jets had been blocked by Washington due to concerns about Turkey's human rights violations and tensions with neighboring Greece.
Kurds in northeast Syria (Rojava) were also opposed to the sale. Turkey has used F-16 fighter jets in its military operations there.
“Our message to the Biden administration and Congress is to not sell F-16 jets to Turkey because Turkey is using those jets to bomb civilian infrastructure and is killing civilians here in northeast Syria. The Biden administration is doing nothing to stop that,” Mazloum Abdi, commander of Rojava’s Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), told Al Monitor last December.
“Unless there can be ironclad guarantees that those planes will not be used against our people, we will continue to oppose the sale,” he added.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency, an agency within Department of Defense said the sale “will not alter the basic military balance in the region.”
“This proposed sale will support the foreign policy goals and national security of the United States by improving the air capabilities and interoperability of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Ally that is a force for political and economic stability in Europe,” it said in a statement.
Washington’s reversal of its block of the sale came after the Turkish parliament on Tuesday approved Sweden’s accession into NATO and Erdogan on Thursday signed off on the parliament’s ratification.
Turkey’s approval leaves Hungary as the last country to approve Stockholm’s membership.
Sweden and Finland reversed their decades-long tradition of military non-alignment and applied to join NATO following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Helsinki’s application was approved unanimously, but Stockholm’s bid remained up in the air for months due to opposition from Turkey and Hungary.
Unanimous approval by alliance members is required in order for new countries to join NATO and Turkey used this as leverage to pressure Stockholm and Helsinki to take action against Kurdish groups it considers “terrorists.”
US President Joe Biden has urged the Congress to approve the sale of jets to Turkey, according to Reuters.
