​US sanctions: Race against time

TURKEY - In Brief 30 Oct 2019 by Atilla Yesilada

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On Tuesday US House of Representatives passed a resolution recognizing the “so called” genocide of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire, as well a bill to impose sanctions on Turkey for Operation Peace Spring. It is not certain whether Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell will put it, or similar bills advanced by his Senate colleagues, on the agenda. While the contents of the sundry sanctions bills vary, some contain provisions against Halkbank and in general penalties on the financial system, which could deal a serious blow to the fragile currency and bond-credit markets. For Turkey, it has become a race against time.Yet, I’m not yet ready to commit myself to the doomsday scenario. First, the resolution to recognize the “so called” Armenian genocide (it was ethnic cleansing, and should be considered in the context of the massive suffering of Balkan and Caucasian Turks at the hands of Orthodox Christians durign the collapse of the Ottoman Empire) was an unnecessary low blow to the nation of Turkey, which serves no purpose but help Erdogan to pursue anti-American policies. Moving on to the sanctions bill, as I’ve been doing a lot lately, I’ll quote Financial Times, because, well, the picture speaks for itself: “The bill, which threatens to freeze the assets of senior Turkish officials and ban arms transfers to Turkey, as well as threatening large Turkish banks with penalties, passed with 403 votes to 16. Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator who has sponsored a similar bill outlining sanctions measures to be taken against Ankara in the senate, said the House vote was an “awesome bipartisan takedown of Turkey’s invasion”. Writing on Twitter, Mr Graham, who has b...