Like it's hard to even blame anyone
Really, though? All of this could've been easily mitigated at various points already; there have been numerous opportunities for this over the past 20+ years.
Even now, it has already been two years since the F-16V deal passed the Congress (only to be eventually scrapped), and even longer since the Eurofighter Typhoon was last considered for the TuAF's agenda.
What's causing this delay, if not the crippling bureaucracy within the TSK itself?
It seems like only the Navy branch is unaffected by this, but even then, there have been years-long delays to their plans (i.e., there's a reason why the TF-2000 destroyer is called the TF-2000! Back then it was to be equipped with SM-2s!)
Turkey could’ve had F-15Es by now if not for the 1999 earthquake.
In the late 00s/early 10s, some degree of local production and access to source codes were offered for the Eurofighter. Putting all your eggs into one basket (the F-35) has been the biggest mistake one could make, though it's easy to understand why they took that route.
By 2018, it was already clear that the Israeli, Greek, and Armenian lobbies would do everything in their power to kick Turkey out of the JSF program. So why did Turkey do nothing about it except 'come to an agreement with the US president'? At the very least, they could have avoided procuring the S-400s (only to give the Americans a pretext) and not literally handed billions to the Russians to stop their airspace violations and diplomatic pressure.
