How The West Sanctions Enemies: Floods Them with Rewards

by Burak Bekdil, GATESTONE  •  May 24, 2023 at 5:00 am

• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an tirelessly struggles to harm Western interests. He should be punished and sanctioned for doing that. Instead, the UN, under U.S. direction, rewarded Turkey by appointing a close Erdo?an confidant to a critical Afghan post, and the Biden administration rewarded Erdo?an by requesting Congressional authorization to sell critical fighter jet parts to Turkey.
• In an effort to help Putin evade sanctions, Turkey agreed to pay 25% of its natural gas bill to Russia in rubles. In return, to help Erdo?an find a way out of a punishing economic crisis, Putin deferred repayment Turkey’s $20 billion gas debts to Russia until 2024.

• By contrast, Turkey’s relations with the West have seen one bottom after another.
• Erdo?an’s request for the extradition [from Sweden and Finland] of “terrorists” does not fit into the judicial system of any democratic country: he insists that everyone who opposes his rule is a “terrorist” — therefore more than half of 85 million Turkish citizens are terrorists.
• On April 17, the Biden administration officially notified Congress about the planned sale to Turkey of critical avionics software upgrades for its current fleet of F-16 fighter aircraft. “Turkey is a?longstanding?and valued NATO ally,” a State Department spokesperson said in a statement. “The Biden administration supports Turkey’s efforts to bring the avionics of its F-16 fleet up to standard.”
• Anything for a sale?
• Perhaps the Turkish foreign minister was right to call Biden “charlatan.”

On April 27, Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed Moscow’s burgeoning energy and wider economic ties with Ankara as he and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an took part virtually in a ceremony inaugurating Turkey’s first nuclear power plant. “This is a flagship project,” Putin said. Pictured: An aerial photograph taken on April 26, 2023 showing the construction of the Russian-built Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant in Mersin Province. (Photo by Ozan Kose//AFP via Getty Images)<
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Some Western governments, in particular the U.S. administration, have a bizarre way of sanctioning Russian President Vladimir Putin’s staunchest allies: by flooding them with rewards. Take for instance, Putin’s not-so-secret Trojan Horse in NATO, Turkey.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an tirelessly struggles to harm Western interests. He should be punished and sanctioned for doing that. Instead, the UN, under U.S. direction, rewarded Turkey by appointing a close Erdo?an confidant to a critical Afghan post, and the Biden administration rewarded Erdo?an by requesting Congressional authorization to sell critical fighter jet parts to Turkey.

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