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Editorial

U.S. Sanctions Against Turkey for S-400s, Not Over Greek-Turkish Issues

If this does not make Erdogan lose his sleep, nothing will:

Two Republican senators, including Lindsey Graham, one of Donald Trump's most loyal supporters, wrote an article published in the Wall Street Journal in which they urge the president to implement a law requiring sanctions against Turkey. The title of the article is: The Price of Turkey 's Russian Dalliance.

It was prompted by Turkey’s purchase and potential use of Russian S-400 missiles – which are designed to neutralize the F-35, the most advanced American aircraft.

Washington had agreed to sell 100 (!) of them to Turkey.

“Diplomats, the Pentagon and senators, including us, warned Turkish government officials that there would be consequences,” they wrote, adding, “the president should now follow the law and levy sanctions against Turkish entities. The Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act requires sanctions against any country that engages in a ‘significant transaction’ of defense assets with Russia, Iran or North Korea.”

Undoubtedly, this is an important development that becomes even more important as it comes in the middle of an arrogant show of strength by Turkey.

However, it would be more important if:

First, the sanctions were not limited to "entities" but also applied to high-ranking Turkish officials. This would hurt them and scare them more.

Second, it would reinforce the logic of the article if, in addition to referring to Russian missiles, the authors also added references, as Foreign Minister Mike Pompeo did recently, to Turkey's generally provocative and illegal policy in the Eastern Mediterranean

The fact that these two points were omitted should concern us because it shows that the Greek-Turkish situation has not yet reached the level of priority with the party currently in power that it should.

 

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