I will continue to lead efforts in Congress to block the sale of F-16s to Turkey and hold Erdogan accountable for his actions, Greek American Congressman Chris Pappas, a member of the Hellenic Caucus, who last July passed in Congress an amendment to block the possible sale of F 16 fighters to Turkey, has said.

In a statement Pappas said that “I strongly condemn President Erdogan’s inflammatory and blatantly hypocritical remarks at the United Nations General Assembly earlier today.”

Erdogan’s speech, he added, “was riddled with disingenuous claims and accusations against Greece. He called for the world to respect the sovereignty and independence of nations, despite continuing to occupy the northern part of the Republic of Cyprus in violation of numerous UN Security Council resolutions, regularly violating Greek sovereignty with territorial overflights, and questioning Greece’s territorial claims in the Aegean.”

According to Pappas, “President Erdogan falsely claims to be a strong ally of NATO despite continuing to possess Russian S-400 missiles, undermining alliance solidarity in the face of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, and threatening Sweden and Finland’s accession to NATO, and that is why I will continue to lead efforts in Congress to block the sale of F-16s to Turkey and hold Erdogan accountable for his actions.”