- Turkey bans Boeings operated by Russian Airlines because of sanctions.
- Ankara buckles under US pressure to recognize Russia's complicity in the Ukraine war
- Events before the election are shaping Erdogan's moves for now, and accepting sanctions is a compromise.
Turkey Forced To Ban Russian Planes from Its Airports
Turkish customs and trade industry have adopted measures dictated by the US-led allies that have to impose illegal sanctions with a new twist. To dent Moscow after failed punitive sanctions that disallow service if US-made aircraft owned by Russia needs them, reported Intellinews.
Last March 9, another instance of Ankara getting pressured to observe US-led sanctions that will stop goods bound for Russia from getting impounded in Turkish ports, noted The Moscow Times.
Most of the major sanctions cooked up by Washington-led Europe have ended and not worked out as expected, leading to more desperate punitive action. The focus is to target the perceived loopholes plaguing useless western efforts.
Only now has the west singled out Tayyip Erdogan, who has not shown any inclination to assist the already faltering punitive actions. The US has leaned on Ankara to influence how the Turks regard these sanctions.
Erdogan Allows Western Pressure as Election Nears
All the sudden actions have suggested that Erdogan is prepping for parliamentary and presidential elections scheduled for May 14, crucial for his political future. Threats of the Turkish economy getting assaulted by second-tier sanctions because it has to be forced to comply with anti-Russian sanctions.
On the NATO bids of Sweden and Finland, Erdogan decided to allow Helsinki a fair shot at joining the military alliance. But it will not remove its lockdown on Sweden to join the military bloc anytime soon. A compromise out of necessity to keep the vocal Biden administration quiet until elections are concluded.
Core to Erdogan's political stand is that Ankara will not be throttled by western pressure as geopolitics see that punitive sanctions are not acceptable. But this is not substantive as these Russian carriers are still able to ply Turkish airspace despite the compromise. The recent sanction only affected Boeing jets, not Airbus jets.
The Wall Street Journal stated last January that US officials are pushing Ankara to have a total ban on Airbus and Boeing because both have US-made parts, mention WSJ. The US and its allies would want to disrupt flights between Moscow and Ankara. Washington wants at all costs to cripple the Ankara link that has not materialized, and it wants Russians to feel the pinch, but Putin still has more allies abroad.
Ankara still has Russian tourists coming in despite the economic and political backlash against affecting their options for travel. It came to the point that the US wanted to have extraordinary jurisdiction to prosecute other nationalities serving planes from Russia and Belarus.
Overall warnings that Ankara will suffer the wrath of the US by losing access to G7 markets if they support Moscow. Turkey has partly caved in to pressure to impose sanctions by not refueling Russian planes in its airports, as a necessity, or Washington could create trouble for Erdogan.
