As
Turkey prepares a warm bed with the help of Russia, the roof over its head is
going to blow off with US sanctions. Despite repeated indicative dialogues and then
stiff warnings, Ankara has recently gone ahead and tested the newly Russian
acquired S-400 defense systems. The Turkish choice led to Washington removing
it from the multinational manufacturing program for F-35 joint-strike fighter
jets and banned the sale of those aircraft to Turkey as well.
Turkey
didn’t solicit this brute anger and has continued to work on the S-400 systems
acquired in May this year. EU nations
have also been weary of this purchase, and are certain this friendship with
Russia is not good news for anyone there or in the Middle East as well.
The
patience threshold has reached its peak and the US Senate Committee on Foreign
Relations is confirmed to be looking at enforcing the 2017 Countering America’s
Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) on Turkey. This is to be followed with banning US
purchases of Turkish sovereign debt, and punishing the Turkish banking and
energy sectors.
Discussions
over strictly sanctioning Turkey comes from US Senate and Treasury criticizing
Ankara’s selfish act of shoving-to-push tactic it has used on Syrian Kurdish
forces in the North of Syria. Trump was also rebuked for withdrawing support
forces, a decision that was not supported by the Senate either. In fact, Trump
was urged not to invite Turkish PM Erdogan to the White House, unless he
withdrew forces from Northern Syria and did not hamper the peace building
efforts. But Trump refused to adhere,
showing his favor of Erdogan over Congress.
The
CAATSA sanctions are known to be a harsh form of sanction against the nation.
It will include a range of options—from denials of visas of Turkish officials
and the prohibition of export licenses to harsher measures such as the blocking
of any transactions with the US financial system.
Political analysts are saying that Russia is now
pulling the Turkish strings and anything Erdogan is saying to Washington has to
be first vetted with Putin. Turkey will not say anything until the January
visit of Vladimir Putin to Turkey. Indeed, the mouthpiece is Erdogan, but the
mind at work is that of Putin which has a calmer but thought out strategy at
play towards becoming a super power in the near future.
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