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The United States has imposed sanctions on Turkey for the Turkish purchase of Russia’s sophisticated S-400 missile system, Russia’s most advanced. The purchase was completed at the end of 2017 and the first part of the supply arrived in Turkey in July 2019. The United States had protested a lot with the Turkish government, threatening retaliation: they had argued that the Russian S-400 missile system was incompatible with the systems of NATO, a military alliance of which both Turkey and the United States are members. They also said that the fact that Turkey operated both systems could have allowed the Russians access to some secret technology related to the operation of American planes.
The sanctions were directed against the Presidency of Defense Industries, a Turkish government organization that manages the country’s defense industry, against the head of the body, Ismail Demir, and other officials. Mike Pompeo, the US Defense Secretary, said the United States “will not tolerate significant transactions with Russia’s defense and intelligence sectors.” Turkey’s Foreign Ministry called the sanctions a “serious mistake” and promised retaliation, while Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called them “another manifestation of arrogant attitude.” [degli Stati Uniti] towards international law “.
It is unclear what effect the sanctions will have on the Turkish defense sector. Until 2018, the Presidency of Defense Industries was an undersecretary within the Turkish government, but then it came under the direct control of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey had already been excluded from NATO’s F-35 aircraft program, in response to the purchase of the Russian S-400 missile system.
The sanctions were imposed after enormous pressure from the United States Congress on the Trump administration, which was very resistant not to pass them. Trump decided after Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act a few days ago, a bill on defense spending that included the government’s obligation to adopt sanctions: the proposal was approved with a majority capable of exceeding even the possible Trump’s veto, who will now be forced to sign it to make it law.
The sanctions were defined as fairly mild: the United States did not want to fully compromise relations with Turkey, a country very important to the US government’s counterterrorism strategy in the Middle East. At the same time, they are very relevant, especially as they reflect the growing distrust of Western leaders towards Turkey, which has become very aggressive in foreign policy and has become increasingly closer to Russia. Just a few days ago the European Union had sent a kind of “last warning” to Turkey, in fact showing its willingness to adopt new sanctions in retaliation for the exploration and exploitation of resources in the eastern Mediterranean, in areas also claimed by Greece and from Cyprus (both members of the European Union).
– Read also: Why are Greece and Turkey fighting in the eastern Mediterranean?
In addition to activities in the eastern Mediterranean, Turkey has adopted an increasingly assertive attitude in other areas of the region as well: among other things, it has turned the tide of the war in Libya by sending weapons and fighters to help the Fayez government to the Serraj, and was heavily involved in the Nagorno-Karabach war, on the Azerbaijani side.
A few days ago the Wall street journal wrote that the United States and the European Union share a similar dilemma: “How to contain Turkey’s aspiration to break free from the shackles of NATO and become a more autonomous regional power, without pushing Erdogan into the arms of Russia?”
At the moment, the two sides have not reached a single position, also due to their own internal divisions. In the United States, as mentioned, the Trump administration has adopted a much more conciliatory attitude towards Turkey than that adopted by Congress. In the European Union there are two camps: the one led by France, Greece and Cyprus, which would like to review relations with Turkey and possibly adopt an embargo on arms sales; and the one led by Germany, the Netherlands and Spain, which would like to limit itself to adopting limited sanctions against some Turkish officials.
What is certain is that the latest US sanctions could also have consequences for the position of the European Union, because they could deter European defense companies from doing business in Turkey.
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