The outline of the U.S. sanction decision against Turkey became clear with the news received from Washington on Monday. Accordingly, it was reported that the head of Turkey’s Defense Industries Presidency (SSB), İsmail Demir, and Presidency officials Mustafa Alper Deniz, Serhat Gençoğlu, and Faruk Yiğit have been added to the sanctions list.
What does this mean?
Will the sanctions pose a major problem for the Defense Industries, which has become one of Turkey’s most pivotal institutions?
Will critical projects be sidetracked?
So, what’s going to happen?
DEFENSE INDUSTRIES CHIEF DEMİR: WE WILL NOT BE AFFECTED BY SANCTIONS
Upon the announcement of the CAATSA sanctions and their depth, I called Defense Industries head İsmail Demir, who has specifically been targeted by them. Mr. Demir gave clear and concise answers to my questions, and every word he said was critical.
Allow me to share them with you:
TURKEY UNABLE TO BUY CRITICAL PRODUCTS
‘THIS SITUATION WILL MAKE US MORE DETERMINED, ALERT, STRONGER’
İsmail Demir has been serving as the head of the Defense Industries, the apple of Turkey’s eye, for six years now. When he came to his post, he boosted the number of projects in this field from 300 to 700. The number of Turkish companies on “Defense News Top 100,” which is considered the world’s most prestigious defense industry list and was announced this year, rose to seven. In order to relay the magnitude of this, I would like to reiteratre that there were only three Turkish firms on that very list three years ago.
Based on the answers he provided to my questions above, it is clearly understood that there will be no turning back from the strategic objectives set in this field due to U.S. sanctions. This is good and comforting news for Turkey.
The U.S. has no right to impose sanctions against Turkey due to the S-400 missiles. It was only last year that Donald Trump clearly and publicly stated at the G-20 summit in Osaka that Turkey is right regarding this matter.
The outline of the sanctions indicates that there is no grave, destructive objective targeting Turkey. As a matter of fact, it gives the impression that sanctions were implemented simply for the sake of implementing them.
This is true, but even though they may be “light” sanctions, the U.S. has no right to impose sanctions against Ankara regarding a matter in which it is completely in the right.