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the F-35 from a defense perspective, we have reviewed within the department and that would be subject to any CAATSA sanctions.” She said no decisions had been made, but a decision to proceed with sanctions would hit Turkish industry hard. “There have been no decisions made on that point. However it would be very, very significant for Turkey,” Lord added, noting that US industry was resilient and could find other sources for the Turkish parts. “That’s not really what we want to do,” she said. “We want to find a way to continue to work with Turkey.” Turkish companies build 937 parts for the stealth fighter. Ankara had planned to buy 100 F-35s, with a total value of $9 billion at current prices. If there is no change of mind from Ankara on acquiring the S-400sl, the Pentagon now plans to move that production to US sites and elsewhere, ending Turkey’s manufacturing role by early next year. Ralph Acaba, president of Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems, reportedly said Turkish firms build components for the company’s Patriot missile defence system, although Turkey does not own or operate that system. He added that Turkish firms were important, reliable suppliers, but Raytheon was constantly looking at alternatives, based on risk assessments. Under the F-35 programme, Turkey is also supposed to run an F-35 maintenance depot that would service F-35s in fleets of European Nato member countries, including the UK.
Although the latest meeting held between Erdogan and his US counterpart Donald Trump in Osaka has triggered a rally in Turkish assets, Bloomberg reported on July 1 that the Turkish government has stockpiled crucial spare parts for the Turkish army’s US-made weapons in case Congress imposes sanctions over the purchase of S-400 missiles from Russia.
The Trump administration still plans to impose sanctions on Turkey and remove it from a critical fighter jet program if the NATO ally acquires Russian S-400 air defences, the US officials told Reuters on July 3. “Nothing has changed,” spokesman at the Pentagon, Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Mike Andrews, told the news service. “Trump may try and get a waiver... This may only buy 180 more days to reach a deal on Patriot, while S- 400 is deployed, and Turkey is removed from the F-35 consortium... The end result is, in a best case scenario for Turkey, a tenuous waiver from sanctions, an angry Congress, and a future without an aircraft Ankara has paid well over a billion dollars to procure,” Aaron Stein of FPRI also told Reuters.
2.4 Attempts under way to send Turkey “cap in hand” to IMF: Erdogan
If you find it hard to imagine Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan being dragged kicking and screaming into a new International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan programme, then you’d be darn right there. Read on. Turkish media have reported that late on June 18, Erdogan said at a dinner in Istanbul that there were indeed attempts under way to force Turkey into such a bailout in order to make the country subservient. Turkey finished repaying $23.5bn of debts owed to the IMF in 2013. “They want to see a Turkey like before, a Turkey that went cap in hand to the IMF,” Erdogan reportedly said. Some observers of Turkey’s present challenging economic predicament say Ankara should apply for a new loan accord with the IMF to help its economy deal with a fast-expanding pile of foreign currency-denominated corporate debt and to provide state budget relief. Erdogan, on the other hand, was cited as saying such calls were actually motivated by discomfort over Turkey’s economic and political successes. Enemies had for several years attempted to blacken Turkey’s name, he claimed, in his trademark rhetorical fashion. “This is the motivation for increasing doses of threatening language towards our country, for the international media smear campaigns,” he protested. Erdogan has blamed the currency crisis that threw Turkey’s economy off the rails last summer on foreign enemies manipulating the financial markets. Not for him any consideration that his administration may have thoroughly botched the economy by over-fuelling it with debt while the good times rolled, with nary an
18 TURKEY Country Report July 2019 www.intellinews.com