Turks Barred U.S. Inspection of Defector’s MIG

The Turkish government, despite its ties to the West as a member of the NATO alliance, rejected a direct American request to inspect an advanced MIG-29 jet fighter flown to Turkey a week ago by a defector, Bush Administration officials say.

The rebuff “caused a lot of resentment” among officials at the Pentagon and State Department because the fighter was returned to the Soviets without the type of comprehensive inspection that would shed light on Soviet capabilities, said the officials, who asked not to be named.

President Bush, in Brussels for a North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit, scheduled an early morning meeting today with Turkish Prime Minister Turgut Ozal before the start of the 16-nation meeting, White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said.

“This was a Russian front-line MIG-29, not the export version of this plane,” explained one Administration source.

“We’ve examined export versions, but the Soviets don’t share their top technology on the stuff they export. This was a chance to really get a look at the engines, ‘look-down’ radar and other systems that are loaded only on the Soviet air force planes.”

The sources said Turkey never offered an adequate explanation for its refusal to allow American experts to study the plane, but U.S. officials assume the Turks were trying to avoid antagonizing the neighboring Soviet Union.

According to the Administration sources, Washington was not informed of the defection--even though the pilot has asked for asylum in the United States--”until after the Turks had already assured the Russians they could have their plane back.”

Even at that point, however, the U.S. Embassy in Ankara and some senior government officials in Washington “strongly and directly pressed the Turks to give us a little time to look at this plane,” said one official.

“The embassy informed them we could get a team there to the scene without delay, But the Turks said ‘no,’ they would have their own experts take a look at it.”

Capt. Alexander Zuyev fled the Soviet Union on May 20, flying to the Turkish town of Trabzon on the Black Sea with a bleeding arm wound.

Pravda, the newspaper of the Soviet Communist Party, later reported that Zuyev was working as a duty dispatcher at the Tskhakaya airfield north of Batumi and therefore was armed on the day of his flight. It said he shot and wounded a sentry, who fired back and wounded Zuyev.

Two other Soviet fighters started chasing the MIG-29 but could not intercept Zuyev because the border was so near, Pravda said.

Turkey allowed Zuyev’s plane to be flown back to the Soviet Union on May 21. It was stripped of rockets and weapons, which were returned on a separate plane.