Turkey Wants Airplanes? Fokker.
Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan delivered a speech at a symposium held on a new constitution at Ulucanlar Prison Museum in Ankara. Photo via Turkish Presidency
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Pity Turkey. Its pilots would likely now be flying advanced F-35 Joint Strike Fighters if President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had not so badly botched diplomacy. Some aide—perhaps it was advisor-turned-clownish ambassador Egemen Bagis, or maybe former spokesman-turned-spy master Ibrahim Kalin—argued with the wisdom their long tenure in the United States imbued them that Erdogan could dismiss bipartisan annoyance with his decision to purchase S-400 anti-aircraft missiles from Russia.
That backfired. With the F-35s off the table, Erdogan now demands F-16s. With the same wisdom as before, his trusty advisors now whisper into his ear that a good strategy to get the hardware he wants is to hold Sweden’s NATO accession hostage. Alas, his advisors forget that Congress is not like Turkey’s parliament. Rubberstamps are in short supply in Washington, especially when neither President Joe Biden nor Secretary of State Antony Blinken can answer basic questions about how the F-16s would actually bolster security.
Congress knows it is far more likely that any jet upgrades would undermine security, given Turkey’s occupation of Cyprus, its overflights of Greek islands, its ethnic cleansing of Syrian Kurds, and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan’s recent admission that Turkish forces died fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh.
But, as Erdogan’s amen corner in American think tanks and a few other Erdogan apologists remind us, Turkey is an important NATO ally, with more men under arms than any other NATO member except the United States. Put aside the meaninglessness of this metric: When the call to fight comes, the size of the army matters less than the men a country is willing to send into a mission.
Unless Erdogan can make a quick buck (or any currency he can use to hedge against the hemorrhaging value of any account held in Turkish Lira), he will not support the mission in any meaningful way. This reality is why the State Department’s Turkey hands remind us that Turkey not only fought in the Korean War, but actually joined the right side. Note to Blinken: When proof of an ally’s value is more than 70 years old, it is time for a new argument.
So, here is a modest proposal: To commemorate Turkey’s support for freedom against the North Korean and Chinese Communist onslaught, why not offer Turkey some mothballed F-82 Twin Mustangs, aircraft that the United States used with great effect in Korea? Erdogan can even tell his followers who will believe anything he says (or face prison) that the higher number means a better more advanced plane. To sweeten the pot and as an apology, perhaps Biden could even throw in a few Lockheed F-80C Shooting Stars. Surely, Turkish diplomats would not balk that such planes are antiquated, especially as both entered service after Biden was born.
That said, there may be better options. Erdogan seeks to revive Ottoman glory, so why not use that as inspiration? During World War I, the Ottomans allied with the Central Powers, so it might make more sense to offer Erdogan a German plane. I would propose the Fokker D. VII, a single-engine, single-seat, German World War I biplane fighter.
Single-seat aircraft fit Turkey’s needs more than the two-seat F-16D’s that Turkey uses, simply because so many pilots remain in prison. As ideology and sycophancy trump technical skill in pilot vetting, the Fokker would also be a better fit for the Turkish Defense Ministry’s new class of engineers.
So, hear my plea, Senator Menendez. Lift your hold! Give Turkey what it deserves! Turkey may never get the F-35s nor new F-16s, but why should the United States and Europe waste Fokkers as museum display pieces when they could be just the platform that Erdogan deserves?
- * Michael Rubin is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute
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