December 10th sources said that the United States may be ready to impose sanctions on Turkey for purchasing Russia’s S-400 missile defense system. At the same time, EU leaders also decided to start preparing sanctions against Turkey at the EU summit on the same day.
According to the discussion of the European Union summit, EU leaders have decided to start preparing sanctions against Turkey and consider adding more sanctions to existing measures, according to the results of the discussion at the European Union summit, Reuters and the US political news website Politico reported on the 10th. Several sources also said in an interview with Reuters on the same day that the United States would impose sanctions on Turkey’s purchase of Russia’s S-400 missile defense system last year.
Reuters quoted sources as saying that the U.S. sanctions will target Ismail Demir, the head of Turkey’s defense industry, and current U.S. President Trump has expressed his support for the sanctions to his aides. According to the report, U.S. sanctions may cause further damage to the Turkish economy. Turkey is facing an economic downturn, inflation and drying up of foreign exchange reserves due to the coronavirus epidemic. Relevant people pointed out that this move may worsen the “existing problematic” relationship between the United States and Turkey.
In response to European sanctions against Turkey, Politico reported that the EU has now authorized the EU’s foreign policy head to prepare a sanctions report in March 2021. But some diplomats also said that because Turkey is a “key ally” on immigration issues in some EU countries, the EU is also trying to avoid the escalation of the conflict.
According to previous reports, Turkish Foreign Minister Çavušoğlu accused U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo of “joining” European “allies” at a previous video conference of the Foreign Ministers of the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and urged them to unite to “attack” Turkey’s “blind favor” of Greece. In addition, he also accused the United States of refusing to export “patriot” anti-missile equipment to Turkey.
