Turkey will fight the US sanctions within legal and diplomatic framework: Erdogan
On Monday, October 1, the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey will fight the US sanctions within legal and diplomatic framework that were imposed on Turkey over detention of US pastor, Andrew Brunson.
Andrew Brunson was an evangelical pastor who was living in Turkey for 23 years and was detained in October 2016 with charges of having links with organization of Fethullah Gulen, that Turkey considers a terrorist organization, and links with Kurdish militants.
US imposed sanctions and increased tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminum on Turkey citing the detention of pastor and demanding release of the pastor. After the US sanctions there was sharp downfall in Turkish currency ‘Lira’ in August and it reached to a record low of 7.20 per dollar.
Turkey will resist US sanctions over pastor, Tayyip Erdogan says https://t.co/0TDZRbQbtL
— TOI World News (@TOIWorld) October 1, 2018
Turkish President Erdogan said in his speech while addressing the parliament, “We are deeply saddened by the current US government, a strategic partner, targeting our country without any logical, political and strategic consistency”.
He said, “Turkey was determined to fight, within legal and diplomatic frameworks, this crooked understanding, which imposes sanctions using the excuse of a pastor who is tired due to his dark links with terror organizations”.
Erdogan ensured the parliament that the Turkish economy is recovering from the damage that it faced from “midnight operation designed to break it”.
He said, “Our economy started rebalancing with measures we have taken, meetings we have realized and programs we have developed”.
Turkey and US have a disputes on number of issues like support to Kurdish militia by US, detention of US pastor by Turkey, US cover to Fethullah Gulen (the cleric Turkey blamed for failed coup in 2016) and purchase of S-400 missile system by Turkey from Russia, because of which relations between both countries have been deteriorated.
Earlier, Turkish president Erdogan announced that Turkey will abandon US dollar from its trade and working with Russia to trade in local currencies, Ruble-Lira.
