Erdogan brokered a deal “reportedly worth $2.5 billion with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the S-400 missile system.” Turkey was also warned by NATO.
Turkey has consistently been a rogue member of NATO that poses a security threat, not only due to its missile deal with Russia, but also because of its tightening alliance with Qatar, its dedication to Islamic supremacist doctrine, its bullying tactics, and its expansionary ambition to revive the Ottoman Empire.
“U.S. sanctions Turkey over purchase of Russian S-400 missile system” by Amanda Macias, CNBC, December 14, 2020:
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration slapped sanctions on Turkey on Monday over a multibillion-dollar acquisition of a Russian missile system.
The long-anticipated move is expected to further stoke tensions between Washington and Ankara in the weeks ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s ascension to the White House and send a message to foreign governments considering future weapons deals with Russia.
In 2017, Turkish President Recep Erdogan brokered a deal reportedly worth $2.5 billion with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the S-400 missile system.
The S-400, a mobile surface-to-air missile system, is said to pose a risk to the NATO alliance as well as the F-35, America’s most expensive weapons platform.
Despite warnings from the United States and other NATO allies, Turkey accepted the first of four missile batteries in July 2019. A week later, the United States cut Turkey, a financial and manufacturing partner, from the F-35 program.
Under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, which Trump signed in August 2017, Turkey faced potential economic sanctions for accepting the Kremlin’s missile system. Trump had not yet imposed sanctions on Turkey.
“Turkey is a valued ally and an important regional security partner for the United States, and we seek to continue our decades-long history of productive defense-sector cooperation by removing the obstacle of Turkey’s S-400 possession as soon as possible,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote in a statement announcing the sanctions.
The sanctions put a ban on all U.S. export licenses and authorizations to the Republic of Turkey’s Presidency of Defense Industries as well as an asset freeze and visa restrictions on the organization’s president, Ismail Demir, and other top officers….
owensgate says
What the euphemism is Turkey still doing in NATO? They support NO values of the Judeo-Christian West, would attack and occupy every other NATO-OTAN country if they could. They served our purposes at the time, but Ataturk’s Turkey is no more; they need to be kicked out of NATO. Replace them with, oh, IDK, Philippines or South Korea. Rename it “West Pacific Treaty Organization”. China is triple the threat the Soviets ever were.
jirtu says
Today’s Jerusalem Post reports that Turkish media (they speak for Erdogan) have been clamoring for war with Israel. They say they can take Tel Aviv in a few hours and proceed to take Jerusalem. Turkey has to be stopped after what it did in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Armenia, and scaring Cyprus and Greece.It has become a dangerous pestilence with fantasies of stretching all the way to the Pacific Ocean plus the Middle East, the Caucasus…and Europe.
mortimer says
Turkey is now an Islamist state with an aggressive, expansionist foreign policy which contradicts the principles of NATO. Turkey is trying to act as a superpower.
Infidel says
I’d like to see a comprehensive policy on Turkey laid out, but w/ this administration on its way out, I think it’s too late for that. In fact, one of the few things I disagree w/ President Trump on is Turkey. He’s right in thinking that personal relationships b/w the top 2 men can percolate down: that’s how it is in the corporate world. However, there are exceptions, like when one of the men is too ideologically married to his vision to care for what his counterpart is putting forward
The issue w/ Turkey is not the mere purchase of S-400s (which I wish even the Russians didn’t sell him). It is Turkey’s neo-Ottoman fantasies, which actually have acquired a virtual realization of its own. The Ottoman empire had much of the Middle East under its suzerainty and vassals like the Barbary states, the Crimean Khanate and so on. Turkey has stooges like Muslim Brotherhood affiliates all over the Middle East, which is not an insignificant asset in the scheme of things: just look at Iran, Hizbullah and the Houthis. Then they have some Arab countries like Qatar, Somalia, Yemen and Kuwait aligned to them. Since Erdogan also believes in the glory of genocidal Turkic empires like Tamerlane, the Qhwarezmids, Seljuqs, Kara Khanids, Mughals and so on, he’s created a Turkic Council for countries that are ethnically Turkic: to date, all but one (Turkmenistan) are members. And finally, there is Pakistan and Malaysia, which are willing to support Turkey’s claim to the leadership of islam. That is something that has cost Pakistan all its goodwill among Arab countries
If one looks at it long enough, Turkey is today the world’s #2 geopolitical threat – after China, but certainly ahead of Russia. Russia, contrary to what the neocons think, is not the Soviet Union and doesn’t have hordes of communist fans in other countries that the Soviets did back in the day, or like Iran had in shi’a Arab parties in the Mid East. It’s a pretty isolated country, sometimes a vassal of China, but pretty wary about potential Chicom designs on Russian territory as well as its ‘near abroad’.
Not just that, Turkey’s main challengers in the region – the Arab countries – all have problems of their own, thanks to the crash in the world’s oil markets. The Saudis have a deficit and are going thru budget cuts, and the same is true about countries like Algeria, UAE, Bahrein and so on. They don’t have the money to spend on endless arms deals.
On top of that, the EU is sanctioning Saudi Arabia in arms sales over the Khassoggi murder, and it’s unclear whether Biden will continue Trump’s policy on Saudi Arabia (and this time, they may not have much money to keep lobbying K-Street). And I won’t even go into how Turkey has eclipsed Iran
Only thing I worry: Joe Biden won’t do a thing about Turkey, b’cos Erdogan has massaged Ilhan Omar’s ego the right way. CAIR and the US muslim movement is pretty squarely in Turkey’s pocket (not the Arabs, since they’re running out of cash)
Boycott Turkey says
I’m not sure what Biden will do to Turkey but I read he doesn’t like Erdogan but I think that snake ilhan Omar will probably influence him to lift the sanctions of Turkey Trump was not any better either when it came to Turkey he said he liked Erdogan and has trump hotels in Istanbul and stabbed the Kurds in the back those sanctions put on Turkey won’t be enough they need to boot Turkey out of NATO and put economic sanctions on Turkey they are a threat not just to Europe but the world they are selling weapons to terrorist in Africa and supporting Terrorism against India so far Macron is the only leader to have stood up to tErdogan he should be tried for war crimes against Kurds and Armenians
gravenimage says
Trump administration slaps sanctions on Turkey over purchase of Russian S-400 missile system
……………………..
Well, this is good. But Turkey should have been kicked out of NATO long since.
jirtu says
Nobody is posing the question “why does Turkey need S-400 and is prepared to seriously damage its relations with the U.S to acquire it at the cost of $2 billion?” In the region there are three nations which are strong: Israel, Egypt, and Iran. Since the rest (Greece, Cyprus, Syria, Georgia, Armenia, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, and Bulgaria) are weak, it means Turkey expects to go to war with one of the three strong states–Israel, Egypt, and Iran. Of the three, the most likely candidate is Israel. As the former Mossad head said: Turkey poses a greater danger to Israel than Iran does.