Turkey's Erdogan Celebrates 'Gold Bar Bob' Menendez Indictment

Islamist Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appeared to celebrate the indictment of Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) on corruption charges in remarks this week suggesting that his removal from the chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee would make it easier for Turkey to purchase American F-16 fighter jets.

“One of our chief hurdles on the F-16 issue were the activities of US Senator Bob Menendez against our country,” Erdogan told reporters on Tuesday on a flight back from Azerbaijan, where he was visiting in support of that country’s ongoing violent purge of Armenian Christians from the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

“We now expect a clear answer from the US on this issue,” Erdogan continued, according to Turkey’s state-owned Anadolu News Agency, as Menendez was not “out of the picture.”

“We hope that we will get the positive result we expect without too much delay,” he added.

Menendez was indicted last week on charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest service fraud, and conspiracy to commit extortion under the color of official right. Federal law enforcement authorities are accusing Menendez of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from various businessmen, including one with links to the government of Egypt, in exchange for using his position in the Senate to advance their interests. Some of the more salacious details included in the indictment were allegations that investigators found $480,000 in cash and more than $100,000 in gold bars in Menendez’s home.

Menendez has rejected calls for his resignation, pleaded not guilty in court, and accused his detractors of bigotry.

“Those behind this campaign simply cannot accept that a first-generation Latin American from humble beginnings could rise to be a U.S. senator,” he said in a statement last week following the publication of the indictment. In a press conference on Monday, he admitted to keeping large amounts of cash in his home but attributed it to generational trauma regarding the mass theft of personal property by communists in Cuba following Fidel Castro’s 1959 coup.

While Menendez remains in Congress, the indictment prevents him from keeping the chairmanship of the Foreign Relations Committee. In that capacity, Menendez has been a vocal critic of Erdogan’s government in Turkey and reportedly played a significant role in preventing a major sale of F-16s to Ankara.

“Ankara requested F-16 fighter jets and modernization kits in October 2021,” Anadolu recalled. “The $6 billion deal would include the sale of 40 jets as well as modernization kits for 79 warplanes already in the Turkish Air Force inventory. The State Department has informally notified Congress of the potential sale.”

Turkey is a member of NATO, which typically facilitates the purchase of American military equipment as the United States is part of that alliance. Erdogan has repeatedly violated NATO protocol, however, outraging fellow NATO members the most with the purchase of Russian S-400 missiles in 2019.

“We object to Turkey’s purchase of the system, and are deeply concerned with reports that Turkey is bringing it into operation. It should not be activated,” a Pentagon spokesman said in 2020 in response to reports that Erdogan had ordered a test run of the S-400 missile systems within Turkish borders that year. “Doing so risks serious consequences for our security relationship. Turkey has already been suspended from the F-35 program and the S-400 continues to be a barrier to progress elsewhere in the bilateral relationship.”

Using Russian missiles violates NATO protocol, which demands that all countries use interoperable military equipment to be able to efficiently work together in the event of a joint operation. As the Pentagon noted in 2020, the administration of then-President Donald Trump suspended Turkey’s participation in the development and use of F-35 stealth jets in response to the purchase of the missiles on the grounds that Russian-Turkish military cooperation presented an intelligence risk to the F-35 program.

“Turkey’s decision to purchase Russian S-400 air defense systems renders its continued involvement with the F-35 impossible,” the Trump White House statement at the time explained. “The F-35 cannot coexist with a Russian intelligence collection platform that will be used to learn about its advanced capabilities.”

The F-16 purchase is separate from the removal of the F-35 program but stalled for similar reasons in Congress. Menendez was far from alone in expressing concerns about selling the fighter jets to Turkey, though his position on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee granted him outsized influence in the matter.

“I’m reading the tea leaves, and he was one of the four that was still kind of holding out, so I think it’s more likely it’s going to be approved — but Sweden’s got to be admitted to NATO,” House Foreign Affairs chair Mike McCaul (R-TX) told Politico on Wednesday, referring to Menendez. “We’re saying we’re not going to consider this if you’re going to play hardball against Sweden.”

Sweden has applied to join NATO and faced stiff opposition from Erdogan. The Turkish president suggested in July that allowing Turkey into the European Union would be a sufficient trade for allowing Sweden into the coalition. This week, with Menendez out at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he insisted that “Sweden’s NATO bid and Türkiye’s F-16 purchase from the US are not linked,” according to Anadolu. Erdogan claimed only the Turkish Parliament – which his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) controls – can approve a vote in favor of Sweden joining NATO.

“When the issue comes to the agenda of parliament, we will see together what the decision will be,” he shrugged.

Politico noted that most congressmen who have publicly opposed Turkey’s F-16 purchase have made no indication of a change of heart as of this week.

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