Turkey says will use Russian S-400 defence system

ISTANBUL: Turkey will use the S-400 missile defence system it has bought from Russia despite the US threat of sanctions, a senior defence official said Saturday.

The purchase of the Russian system and its subsequent delivery of the system in July has been a major source of friction between two NATO allies Turkey and the United States.

Last month the US said Turkey would be spared sanctions under a 2017 law if the S-400 system is not turned on.

“It is not a correct approach to say ´we will not use for someone else´s sake´ a system we had purchased out of our need and we paid that amount of money,” Ismail Demir, the head of the Defence Industry Directorate, a government body, told private CNN Turk broadcaster.

“We will do our duty and (the system) will become usable. How it will be used is a decision to be made later,” he said.

“We should respect the agreement we signed and that´s what suits us as a country.”

The issue was raised in talks in Washington this week between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his US counterpart Donald Trump.

Trump said afterwards that Turkey´s controversial acquisition created “serious challenges” for Washington as he added officials would “immediately” get to work on resolving the issue.

Turkey was removed from the F-35 fighter jet programme as a consequence of the purchase.

Erdogan´s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin on Friday said: “There is no question of a step backwards, Turkey will activate the S-400.”AFP

Turkey dismisses four more pro-Kurdish mayors over alleged terror ties: Four more mayors from Turkey´s main pro-Kurdish party were dismissed on Saturday on suspicion of links with outlawed Kurdish rebels and were replaced by government-appointed trustees, the official Anadolu news agency reported.

The mayor of Suruc in the Sanliurfa province and three mayors from Mazidagi, Savur and Derik districts in the Mardin province were suspended, Anadolu said.

Ankara accuses the Peoples´ Democratic Party (HDP) — the country´s third-largest party — of links to the Kurdistan Workers´ Party (PKK), which has fought a bloody insurgency against the state since 1984.

In recent months, the government has cracked down on the HDP — the only party in parliament that criticised Turkey´s offensive against Kurdish militants in northern Syria in October, branding it an “invasion.”

With the latest dismissals, the number of HDP mayors suspended by the government has reached 24.