07.12.2020, Moscow.
There is a serious demand for criticism and disagreement with the USA in Turkey – this is a part of Turkey’s strengthening as a regional superpower, Russian Senator Aleksey Pushkov wrote on December 7 on his Telegram Channel.
This is how Pushkov commented on the verbal exchange between US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu during a meeting of NATO foreign ministers on November 1. Pompeo then accused Ankara of creating tension with NATO allies in the Mediterranean Sea and buying S-400 from Moscow. The Turkish minister’s response was harsh at that time – Çavuşoğlu accused Washington of disloyalty to Turkey on issues ranging from supporting the Kurds in Syria to obstructing Ankara’s actions in Karabakh.
A Federation Council member partly linked the tone of the Turkish minister’s response to expectations of the impending departure of Donald Trump’s administration and the close resignation of Pompeo.
At the same time, according to the senator, Turkish public opinion is generally outraged by the US attempts to dictate the course of actions for Ankara and its attitude towards Turkey as a troubled young ally.
“Turkey understands its geopolitical importance for the USA and NATO and wants Washington to take Ankara’s opinion into consideration, and Erdogan is not ashamed to make statements in that regard. The double standards of the United States excite indignation particularly,” Pushkov explained.
On December 4, during a briefing for journalists, Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs René Clarke Cooper confirmed the US Congress’s blockage of supplies of US arms and military equipment to Turkey.
The Congress took this step to put additional pressure on Turkey to force Ankara to abandon the S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems it had previously purchased from Russia. In addition to possible sanctions and restrictions on arms sales, the US excluded Turkey from the production program of the fifth generation F-35 fighter.
Earlier, on November 2 at the briefing Cooper stated that the possibility of imposing sanctions against Turkey over S-400 had always been considered and is still being considered. At the same time, the diplomat said that Washington aspires not to resort to sanctions pressure on Ankara, since Turkey is the US ally in NATO.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
