Greek-American Gus Bilirakis went to bed on the night of July 13, unaware that an amendment would be voted through Congress the following morning on an issue that had been troubling him—the US sale to Turkey of 40 American F-16 fighter jets and 80 aircraft upgrade packages. which he already owns. Although he doesn’t really believe in dreams himself, what he saw that night had a profound effect on him: “I dreamed about my parents and myself as a child in the Greek Village of Tampa, Florida, where I grew up. I cried a lot and told them that I would not let that happen. I will not let the Turks take our islands.” He remembers waking up weighed down by a nightmare. When he saw that the singer Valantis, his beloved cousin, had sent him a message at night, he was surprised by the coincidence. “How are you? I will go to Kastellorizo ​​to sing and raise the flag for you too,” he wrote to him in Greek.

Less than ten minutes later, his phone rang. It was then that he was speechless: the decisive amendment to the F-16 would be passed by Congress within two hours. He felt that neither the dream he saw nor the message he received were accidental. He was on a special mission. “I went to Congress with the intention of leaving nothing to chance,” he tells K. Seven hours later, at 10:05 pm Greek time, he texted his cousin: “We won! We have adopted the amendment. We will block the purchase of F-16s in Turkey!!!” Three months after that day, we met with Gus Bilirakis in his office in Congress, and he told us about the behind-the-scenes processes behind the much-discussed issue.

Turkey’s desire to buy the F-16 became known in October last year, and Bilirakis, along with 40 other MPs, immediately sent a letter to Foreign Minister Anthony Blinken in which he expressed his complete disagreement. They wrote that Turkey had already been denied the F-35 program because it had bought Russian weapons systems and was returning with a potentially dangerous request. “Don’t try to use legal tricks to go beyond sanctions. We will not hesitate to take additional legislative measures to prevent this development,” they warned.

For Bilirakis himself, certainly his Greek origins from Kalymnos and his love for all things Greek played a role in how much he became involved with the issue from the first moment, but now he also saw how other colleagues, not only of Greek origin, distanced themselves from Turkey. The Turkish lobby, although weakened, continued to seek to overcome these first objections. This was one of the reasons that Gus Bilirakis was among those who worked methodically to ensure that Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ address to Congress would take place. Although he had coronavirus that day, he watched the Prime Minister’s speech from afar and believes that the speech (which is framed in his office in Congress) played an important role in the F-16 debate as well.

From the amendment (voted 244-179), which blocked the sale of fighter jets to Turkey, to the “coups” of the past week.

The Prime Minister of Greece then indirectly touched on this issue, asking to take into account the “risk of instability in the southeastern wing of NATO” when making decisions on the supply of military equipment to the region. The Turkish side publicly expressed strong dissatisfaction with this report and behind the scenes, it seems, used all the weapons it had left: one of them was the right to veto the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO. That’s why Bilirakis was concerned when President Joe Biden announced his positive attitude towards the F-16 sale in June in Madrid.

Thus, on July 14, everyone knew that a decisive battle would unfold in Congress. As soon as Bilirakis received a phone call that the amendment would be discussed within two hours, he set to work. Along the way, his team sent out letters to all Republican lawmakers explaining their position on the issue. Two amendments were made (by Reps Chris Papas and Frank Pallone) to improve the odds of at least one run. Eventually the two amendments were merged but were told they would not even move forward for some procedural reason. The pope was absent due to the coronavirus, so Bilirakis, representing his party, spoke to Pallone for the Democrats, and when they were convinced that the amendment would be tabled, he asked him directly how many Republican votes he needed to pass. “Twenty,” he replied. “I have,” Bilirakis said. He had 15 minutes before the end of voting. He asked Nicole Malliotakis (also a Republican) to talk to as many of “them” as possible and went straight to Steve Scalise, their whip, who intended to vote no. “I don’t have time to explain all the reasons, but do it for me, do it for Greece,” she told him. He changed his vote without much thought, and that one vote was the catalyst for at least 20 Republicans to change their vote as well. The amendment passed (244-179) blocks the market unless steps are taken to ensure that these F-16s “are not used by Turkey for repeated unauthorized territorial flights over Greece.”

Again, coincidentally, on that day, namely during the voting, Bilirakis had a meeting with the Greek Ambassador to the United States, Alexandra Papadopoulou, and the head of GETHA, Konstantinos Floros. As soon as the amendment was passed, Bilirakis ran to his office: “We raised the Greek flag in Washington,” he told them excitedly.

It was a very important step, but Bilirakis knew he still had a long way to go before the amendment became law. And of course he knew that Erdogan was not going to give up. Indeed, in recent weeks, the Turkish side has stated that now senators and parliamentarians are on its side. At the same time, however, he did not hesitate to threaten himself, once again debating the possibility of vetoing the membership of the two Scandinavian countries in NATO and saying that there were other countries that could meet his needs for fighters.

Erdogan is also bowling in Washington

“Obviously in Greece we have to be careful about Turkish threats, but Erdogan is also bowling here in Washington. We are tired of this tactic,” said Mr. Bilirakis.

However, last week there was a new development, which was not expected by the allies of Greece. Two new Senate amendments by Bob Menendez and Van Hollen failed to pass. The first was identical to the July one, and the second set different conditions (response to the latest Turkish threats: ratify the protocol on the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO and not use fighters against the Kurds in Syria). According to “K”, this development of events is connected both with procedural reasons (only amendments that have received a wide consensus) and, of course, with the behind-the-scenes moves of the White House, which does not want to tie its hands. regarding this issue.

Now the two bodies (the House and the Senate) will have to discuss the final text of the budget, and there will again be discussed the July amendment, which Mr. Bilirakis helped pass. Both he and the rest of the expatriate MPs, the Greek Embassy and the Greek American community will now step up their pressure. “It won’t be easy, but the game isn’t over yet,” he stresses to K.