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security of F-35 performance data.
Angry those senators may be, but of course Trump stands in the way of them bearing down on Erdogan with meaningful sanctions, just as he keeps up his massive arms sales to Saudi Arabia and orchestrates funding for his wall on the Mexican border despite all the hue and cry. Russia’s hand, or at least Russia’s great pleasure in developments, is seen everywhere, and a geopolitical shockwave for Turkey’s populist authoritarian is probably not on the horizon in the near future as long as Moscow and the White House stand to gain from his awkward, but viable, position on the chess board.
Global myopia in the face of the end of the neoliberal chapter in world history and Turkey’s habit of coming up with unexpected shocks are two abiding certainties that cannot be overlooked, but as things stand it appears that Trump and his authoritarian friends that have popped up in power around the world may have to wait for a second Trump term, should he win one in the November 2020 US election, to set about burying neoliberalism once and for all. But can Erdogan survive until then?
Seizing municipalities. Having this month cited national security reasons in seizing three municipalities won by the pro-Kurdish HDP in the local elections, Erdogan is now signalling that he could audaciously attempt to grab municipalities ruled by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) by alleging connections to terrorists. It would appear that he has lost all hope of making a genuine recovery at the ballot box given the inexorable slide of the domestic economy, thus he may be getting ready to take another step in his authoritarian journey.
Whispers in his ruling AKP party suggest his main agenda item incoming days will be his opponents within the AKP. The party is expected to launch its congress process on October 7 with municipal and provincial business to be dealt with first. Expectations that there could be a snap poll are strengthening. However, as well as a short-term sugaring of the economy with an ill-advised credit glut, Erdogan will need to pull out all the stops— legitimate and otherwise—if he is to win a surprise election. It may just be the case that.
Erdogan said on August 27 that Turkey wants to continue defence industry cooperation with Russia, including on warplanes.
His remarks came after talks in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin and following a visit to the MAKS-2019 international air show outside the Russian capital where the two leaders saw Sukhoi Su-57 stealth fighter jets give demonstration flights.
Erdogan, who had arrived on his visit partly to talk to Putin about Russian-backed Syrian troop attacks in northwest Syria which he said placed Turkish armed forces in danger and posed a threat to Turkey’s national security, inspected the cockpit of a fifth generation Su-57.
August 27 also saw Ankara take delivery of a second consignment of Russian S-400 air defence equipment, which the US and Nato have warned poses a security threat to military hardware including the world’s most advanced fighter jet, the F-35. Turkey’s orders for around 100 of the planes have been blocked by Washington and it has been indefinitely frozen out of the F-35 development and production programme as a consequence of its S-400 acquisitions.
Pressure in Congress for US President Donald Trump to hit Turkey with sanctions over the matter is, meanwhile, building again.
The initial delivery of parts of the S-400s arrived in Turkey in July.
21 TURKEY Country Report September 2019 www.intellinews.com