US sanctions against Turkey will backfire

The American sanctions imposed against Turkey, which have long been discussed and justified by Ankara’s S-400 purchase from Russia, was finally approved by the Senate and decreed. Thus, Turkey is also exposed to U.S. sanctions, which is just one of the instruments it uses to rule the world. Of course, besides these sanctions, the U.S. additionally uses its own currency, classifies countries as pro-terror, and also utilizes the banking system, which it has imposed on the whole world, as a stick in foreign policy.

As a matter of fact, Turkey is a country that frequently encountered myriad threats and attempts by the U.S. throughout history. The U.S. had a vast number of instruments and a great deal of room to maneuver in the past with respect to controlling Turkey. It seems that these instruments are not as effective today as they used to be, and their breathing room has narrowed down immensely. The U.S. used to be able to achieve a great deal through the civil society organizations and its influence agents within the press and media in Turkey. In the worst case scenario, it used to have coups staged, having whatever it wants done through the crudest methods. After its last attempt of staging a coup on July 15, 2016, through the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), an extremely useful instrument to the U.S., it realized that it was no longer as effective and as powerful as it used to be in Turkey.

The reduced number of instruments the U.S. uses to establish its influence over Turkey, and its shrinking area of maneuver is largely because Turkey is much more powerful than it used to be.

The timing of this decision, which has long been on the agenda, so to speak, is telling. It coincides with a period in which a new president is elected but has not yet been inaugurated. As is known, President Donald Trump, who will be in office until Jan. 20, 2021, was strongly against this sanction decision. In fact, he had supported Turkey with respect to its decision to purchase the S-400 system – which is the pretext of the sanctions – and had clearly said the blame should be sought in the Barack Obama administration that drove Turkey to take this course.

The process concerning Turkey’s purchase of the S-400 defense system from Russia is not one that the U.S. can blame Turkey for, whether it be regarding the requirements of the NATO alliance, or in any other context. On the contrary, from the very beginning, the U.S. has been the side not to comply with the spirit of alliance, and drove Turkey to purchase this system from Russia. As AK Party deputy Ömer Çelik said, the Patriots positioned in Turkey were hastily removed and taken while Syria was raining bombs over Turkey’s southeastern city, Kilis.

The U.S. did not sell its Patriot defense system to Turkey, in other words, a country that is its NATO ally, a country on which any attack should be regarded as an attack against itself and which it should defend. The justification is that the U.S. Congress could not be convinced. Yet the same Congress was able to send at least 5,000 truckloads of weapons free of charge to a terrorist organization that presents a clear threat to its NATO ally Turkey, and is, in fact, classified as a “terrorist organization” even in its own system.

The U.S. has nothing to say to Turkey, but Turkey has a great deal to say, and it should be prepared, because Turkey is going to speak volumes. The U.S., which causes a stir in the world whenever it pleases regarding anti-terrorism, is currently the world’s biggest supporter and financier of terrorism. Nobody might be saying this to its face out of fear of its sanctions and threats. However, Turkey says this explicitly, on every platform, and will continue to do so.

Though the U.S. considers Russia as an enemy, it has no problem establishing relations when it serves its interests. However, it acts arbitrarily in terms of imposing sanctions against the countries of its choice, on the grounds that they established relations and engaged in trade with Russia. It is able to bring into question imposing sanctions under the same category against Germany as well for buying gas from Russia. On the other hand, Greece, another NATO country, previously purchased S-300 missiles from Russia. It made this purchase before Turkey did. Yet, no sanctions are in question against Greece.

The U.S. is the reason of the innocent Sudanese people’s suffering with the sanctions it has had in place for the last three decades. However, it removed it from the list of pro-terror countries in exchange for normalizing relations with Israel, the master terrorist. Did anything change in Sudan? No. It solely normalized relations with occupier Israel, which does not recognize UN decisions and international law, and systematically violates all human rights.

It should be known by all, and primarily the U.S., that all these American sanctions serve to shoot itself in the foot. This is the case, because this arbitrary attitude, lack of principle, and inconsistency it presents in its sanctions or general policy, is increasingly causing the U.S. to lose credit. As the world continues to rapidly change, these developments are shifting the balances. Meanwhile, the U.S. is trying to adjust the world with its archaic mindset. The more it continues to do this, at the end of the day, the U.S. itself turns out to be the biggest loser. After all, in the rapidly developing world, nobody is dependent on anyone, or without options.

A different mentality is necessary in order to keep pace with the rapidly evolving world. The U.S. shows through these practices that it is far from having such a mentality. Therefore, in the last instance, it appears that these sanctions are destined to backfire.