US President Donald Trump (L) and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan posed for a family photo at a NATO summit on December 4, 2019 at the Grove Hotel in Watford, northeast London.
Peter Nichols | AFP | Getty Images
WASHINGTON – The Trump administration on Monday imposed sanctions on Turkey over its multi-billion-dollar acquisition of a Russian missile system.
The move, which is expected to further prolong tensions between Washington and Ankara in the weeks leading up to the election of President-elect Joe Biden to the White House, is expected to send a message to foreign governments considering future arms deals with Russia.
In 2017, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed a $ 2.5 billion deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the S-400 missile system.
The Russian-made S-400, a surface-to-air missile system, is said to pose a threat to NATO allies and the F-35, the United States’ most expensive weapons base.
Turkey accepted the first of four missile batteries in July 2019, despite warnings from the United States and other NATO allies. A week later, the United States cut off financial and manufacturing partner Turkey from the F-35 program.
Air missile system from a Russian S-400 surface.
Sergei Malkovko | Toss via Getty Images
Turkey faced potential sanctions for adopting the Kremlin’s missile system under the Anti-American Anti-Terrorism Act signed by Trump in August 2017. Trump has not yet imposed sanctions on Turkey.
“Turkey is a valuable ally and a key regional security partner for the United States. We seek to continue the decades-long history of manufacturing defense cooperation by quickly lifting the embargo on Turkey’s S-400 possession,” Secretary Mike Pompeo wrote in a statement announcing sanctions.
Sanctions imposed by the President of Turkey have barred all US export licenses and accreditations for the defense industry, as well as the head of the organization, Dr. Ismail Demir, and other top officials with property freezing and visa restrictions.
“Well, this is a very bad time. Strong, well-designed sanctions are a painful delay,” explained Thomas Karako, director of the Missile Defense Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“Details are very important. It will become a softball. If sanctions are to make sense, they cannot be just tokens,” Karako added.
The latest revelation comes just two months after reports emerged that the Turkish military had begun testing the S-400 system.
In October, the Department of Defense and the State Department condemned the apparent missile test on Turkey’s Black Sea coast.
“The United States has made it clear to the Turkish government at the highest levels that the purchase of Russian military equipment, such as the S-400, is unacceptable,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Morgan Ordagus wrote in an email statement at the time.
The rocket is launched from the S-400 missile system on September 22, 2020 at the Ashuluk military base in southern Russia.
Dimitar Tilkoff | AFP | Getty Images
“The United States is clear on our expectation that the S-400 system will not work,” he added.
“We oppose Turkey’s purchase of the system, and we are deeply concerned about reports that Turkey is implementing it.
The S-400, the successor to the S-200 and S-300 missile systems, was introduced in 2007. Compared to US systems, the Russian-made S-400 is believed to be capable of attracting a wide range of targets, even against multiple limits at once.
In a series of attempts to prevent Turkey from buying the S-400, the State Department offered to sell the country Radeon’s patriotic missile system in 2013 and 2017. Ankara twice crossed the Patriots mark because the United States refused to change the organization’s key missile technology.
Despite US sanctions, a dozen countries have expressed interest in buying Russia’s S-400 missile system.