Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: Developed Countries Have Nuclear Missiles, but I Am Not Supposed to Have Them? I Do Not Accept That

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in a September 4, 2019 speech that was aired by the Anadolu News Agency (Turkey) that he cannot accept a situation in which "almost all the developed countries" have missiles with nuclear warheads while Turkey is not allowed to have them. He said that Turkey is "continuing its work," and he criticized the world for opposing Turkey's acquisition of the S-400 air defense system. In addition, Erdogan reassured the audience that Turkey's S-400 system will be finished by April of 2020.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: Some countries have missiles with nuclear warheads, and not just one or two. I, however, am not supposed to have missiles with nuclear warheads. I do not accept this. In the world today, among the developed countries, there are almost no countries that do not have missiles with nuclear warheads. They all have them. In fact, one of them – I won't say the name, but it is not the current president… When I went there on a visit, [that president] said: "They say this and that. Right now, I have 7,500 [missiles] with nuclear warheads, but Russia and America have 12,500 and 15,000 missiles with nuclear warheads. I'm going to make some [more]." Look at the situation, look at where they are, and look at how they compete [with one another]. And what are they telling us? [They say:] "Absolutely not! Don't do it!" And right next to us, there is Israel, right? With everything [it has], it is a frightening [other countries]. My dear brothers and sisters, we are continuing our work. Look, the S-400 incident took place, and they raised hell. "You can't have it," they said. Why can't we? It's called the S-400 what? It's called "Defense System," not "Assault System." They are even preventing us from getting a defense system. Well, we got it. Allah willing, it will be completely finished in April.