EU and US go cold on Turkey

The European Union and the United States have both suspended activities relating to Turkey, but for different reasons.

On 15 July, the EU said that as a result of Turkey’s continued drilling activities west of Cyprus – ones it considers illegal – and commencement of a second drilling operation northeast of Cyprus within Cypriot territorial waters, it has decided ‘to suspend negotiations on the Comprehensive Air Transport Agreement and agrees not to hold the Association Council and further meetings of the EU-Turkey high-level dialogues for the time being. The Council endorses the Commission’s proposal to reduce the pre-accession assistance to Turkey for 2020 and invites the European Investment Bank to review its lending activities in Turkey, notably with regard to sovereign-backed lending.’

The following day, at his Cabinet meeting, President Trump confirmed that Turkey would be prevented from buying ‘substantially over one hundred’ F-35 fighter planes, as a consequence of the country’s decision to buy a Russian missile system – a chain of events that he blamed on his predecessor, former president Obama, whose administration had blocked a sale to Turkey of Patriot missiles.

With regard to the EU’s ‘conclusions’, the Turkish foreign ministry said they ‘demonstrate how prejudiced and biased the EU is with regard to Cyprus as they make no reference to the Turkish Cypriots, who have equal rights over the natural resources of the Island, in total disregard of their existence in Cyprus.  These conclusions are the latest examples of how the Greek Cypriot-Greek duo abuse their EU memberships for the sake of their maximalist positions and how other EU countries are instrumental to this end.’

So far as the (long-running) situation pertaining to Russian missile systems and US jet fighters goes, Turkey has long promised ‘retaliation’ if the United States imposes sanctions on account of its purchase.