President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Tuesday that Turkey will impose a boycott against U.S. electronic products amid an ongoing and deepening rift between the two Nato allies over a number of issues. Speaking at a symposium organized by the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA) in the capital Ankara on the 17th foundation anniversary of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), Erdoğan said: “For each product we buy from abroad with foreign currencies, we will manufacture better ones and sell them abroad. We will implement a boycott on U.S. electronic products.”If they have iPhone’s, there is Samsung on the other side. We have Vestel in our own country. We will implement these,” he said.
Following Erdoğan’s speech, the shares of Turkish electronics producer Vestel trading in Borsa Istanbul (BIST) increased by as much as 7 percent amid an overall surge in benchmark BIST-100 Index by 1.1 percent. Erdoğan reiterated the Turkish government’s view that the recent downturn in Turkish lira and stocks was caused by an attack by U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration.”When they fail to make us what they want on the field, they don’t hesitate to use the economy as a weapon, just like diplomacy, just like military power, just like social and political instability,” Erdoğan said.
Lambasting the “economic attack” on Turkey, Erdoğan said: “Our country today has one of the most solid banking systems in the world in all respects. The president said the reasons for the economic attack have nothing to do with the Turkish economy, but that behind the attack lie “some other plans. To fight off this attack, Erdoğan stressed economic and political steps. We took and will take the necessary measures in the economy … The second, and the most significant point to me is to keep our political stance strong,” Erdoğan added. On recent economic developments in Turkey, Erdoğan said: “Whether one is local or a foreigner, friend or foe, anyone could see that there is something strange in our economic data. The president also urged businesses to do more exports.
“I call on our people and especially our business world that the best answer you could give to economic hitmen is to fully embrace your business. We must produce more, export more, as there is no meaning in locking [our products] up in storage.”Trump authorized an increase in tariffs on Turkish aluminium and steel products on Aug. 10, while the U.S. also imposed sanctions on Turkish justice and interior ministers for their alleged role in the arrest American pastor Andrew Brunson, who is under arrest for his alleged links with PKK and Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ). Turkish officials led by Erdoğan said that the increase in tariffs doesn’t comply with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, let alone the strategic partnership and alliance between the two countries. Turkey retaliated in kind to the sanctions on its ministers, although noting that these sanctions are meaningless.
The two countries are also at odds over their policy in Syria as the U.S. backs the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which is dominated by the People’s Protection Forces (YPG), the armed wing of PKK terrorist group’s Syrian offshoot the Democratic Union Party (PYD). Turkey considers the control of regions in northern Syria by the SDF and the YPG a direct threat against its national security due to the ongoing conflict with the PKK since early 1980 that killed more than 40,000 people and cost billions to the country’s economy. Fethullah Gülen, the leader of FETÖ group that launched the July 15, 2016 coup attempt killing 251 people and injured 2,200 others, also resides in U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Turkey repeatedly demanded Gülen’s extradition but the issue has not progressed so far.
Source: Daily Sabah