The United States has imposed sanctions on the Turkish Defense Industry Organization and its executives, the US State Department said in a statement.

The statement said Secretary of State [Anthony Blinken] imposed specific sanctions on the Head of Turkey Department of Defense and Director of Defense Industries, Ismail Demir; Farooq Yigit, Deputy Minister of Defense Industries; Serhat Ganjoglu, head of the defense industry's air and space defense department; and Mustafa Alper Deniz, the Director of Planning in the Board of Regional Air Defense Systems.

Regarding the reason behind imposing sanctions on the Turkish defense industry, Blinken said that the Turkish defense industry "has made a significant deal with someone who acted on behalf of or as a representative of the defense or intelligence departments of the Russian Federation government."

Turkey's arms purchase from Russia, including the purchase of the S-400 missile defense system, have been a matters of contention between Ankara and Washington.

According to the State Department statement the official document on the sanctions will be released today, Tuesday, April 6.

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