ISTANBUL, April 21-- Amid claims that Turkey may hand over the S-400 air defense system to be bought from Russia to some other country under mounting U.S. pressure, analysts said Turkey is looking for a way out of the trouble. "It looks as if Turkey will back down from the S-400 deal in some way," Hasan Koni, an analyst on international relations with Istanbul Culture University, told Xinhua. Okan Muderrisoglu, a columnist for the pro-government Sabah daily, wrote Tuesday that after the delivery of the S-400 missiles is complete, the option of keeping them in Azerbaijan or Qatar was on the table for Ankara. Turkey is scheduled to get the first batch of the sophisticated long-range air defense system from Russia in July, making it the first NATO country to have the missiles. Turkey will probably do a turnaround regarding the S-400 system by offering Russia some concessions, argued Koni. "In case Ankara would not budge, the U.S. may economically ruin Turkey," he explained. Jogn Sitilides, an adviser to the U.S. State Department, told U.S. media days ago that President Donald Trump would economically punish Ankara if the S-400 deal is not scrapped. Amid signs of recession, Turkey needs roughly as much as 200 billion U.S. dollars in 2019, nearly 175 billion dollars of which is short-term debt, to run its economy. Washington, extremely vexed by its ally's decision to acquire the S-400 missiles, warned Turkey of sanctions if it follows through the deal. |