Will Meet President Putin And Add Russia's Defense System, President Erdogan: No One Can Intervene!

President Vladimir Putin with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (Wikimedia Commons/Kremlin.ru/The Presidential Press and Information Office)

JAKARTA - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has reiterated that his country will continue to buy the second batch of S-400 missile systems from Russia, even though it risks deepening rifts with NATO allies and could trigger new US sanctions.

Washington says the S-400 poses a threat to F-35 fighter jets and broader NATO defense systems. Meanwhile, Turkey says it cannot acquire the air defense system from any NATO ally on satisfactory terms.

"In the future, no one can interfere in terms of what kind of defense system we get, from which country at what level," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in an interview broadcast on Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan on CBS News on Sunday, citing Reuters, September 27.

"No one can interfere with that. We are the only ones who make such a decision," said President Erdogan.

The United States (US) imposed sanctions on Turkey's Defense Industry Directorate official Ismail Demir and three other employees last December, after the country acquired the first batch of S-400s.

Talks continue between Russia and Turkey about the second batch of shipments, which Washington has repeatedly said will almost certainly trigger new sanctions.

If nothing changes, President Erdogan will visit Russia next week to meet with President Vladimir Putin, to discuss a number of issues, including violence in northwestern Syria.

President Erdogan also said US President Joe Biden had never raised the issue of Turkey's human rights track record, which international rights advocacy groups view as very troublesome, confirming a Reuters report from early September.

Asked if President Biden raised the issue during their June meeting on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Brussels, President Erdogan said: "No, he didn't. And because we have no such problem in terms of freedom, Turkey is unrivaled free." he said.

Turkey has one of the highest prisons of journalists, according to figures from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), while Human Rights Watch (HRW) says President Erdogan's authoritarian rule has been consolidated by passing laws that run counter to international human rights obligations.

US and Turkish sources told Reuters earlier this month that President Biden, who has repeatedly said promoting human rights around the world lies at the heart of his foreign policy, did not raise human rights issues in his meetings with Erdogan. Discussions focused on the purchase of the Russian S-400 by Afghanistan, Syria, and Turkey.

Meanwhile, Turkish officials took it as a signal that Washington would not impose human rights, the sources said, despite repeated public criticism from President Biden's administration over Ankara's treatment of opposition groups and its official admission of the killing of Armenians last year. 1915 by the Ottoman Empire was a genocide.