Baku, Azerbaijan, March 11
By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:
Starting from March 12 this year, Turkey will completely stop using the F-4 fighter jets, the TRT Haber news channel quoted the Turkish air force commander, General Abidin Unal, as saying on March 11.
Earlier, the deputy prime minister of Turkey, Bulent Arinc, said that despite a series of crashes of the Turkish air force F-4 fighter jets, which were in 2002 upgraded in Israel, Ankara will not abandon using them.
He said the Turkish air force periodically inspects the technical condition of its F-4 fighters.
Arinc also added that Ankara wants to use the F-4 fighters until 2020.
Earlier, on March 5, two F-4 fighters crashed in the Turkish province of Konya.
Following this a number of Turkish media outlets reported that Ankara suspects Israel of involvement in the fighter crashes.
Turkish air force fighters that crashed in Konya were also upgraded in Israel in 2002. Since 2002, a total of 12 F-4 fighters crashed in Turkey for unknown reasons.
The cost of modernization of one fighter in Israel was Turkey 30.4 million Turkish liras.
Earlier, the Turkish Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz didn't rule out the possibility that in the future the country will abandon using the F-4 fighters.
The F-4 fighter crashes in Turkey killed 15 air force pilots since 2002 up to the present day.
Currently, the Turkish air force has 54 F-4 fighters.
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