Senators Vow Fast Work on Turkey Sanctions Over Russian Missiles
Senators Vow Fast Work on Turkey Sanctions Over Russian Missiles
(Bloomberg) -- Turkey’s decision to move forward with deployment of a Russian-made air defense system has sparked new urgency in the the U.S. Senate to punish the NATO ally.
Tests in Ankara this week of the S-400 anti-aircraft missile system will increase pressure on the U.S. Treasury to impose sanctions mandated by current law. The move will also provide more incentive for the Senate to advance additional sanctions drafted last month in response to Turkey’s invasion of northern Syria -- as Republican senators personally warned Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during his visit to the White House.
Even before the announcement of the tests, Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Jim Risch said his committee would take up legislation in early December that would penalize Turkey’s leaders, energy industry and financial system related to military action in Kurdish-held territory in Syria. The House of Representatives passed its sanctions bill on a 403-16 vote last month, and there are two proposals in the Senate to impose similar punishments.
“I don’t have any choice at this point,” Risch, an Idaho Republican, said last week. Referring to the S-400 system, he said, “We want to give him some incentive to think more clearly about this.”
Risch added that there’s “a clear path forward” on a bill he’s sponsoring with New Jersey Democrat Bob Menendez in the Senate, where it has bipartisan support.
The three sanction proposals include a provision to enforce the 2017 Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, which could freeze Turkish assets, restrict visas and limit access to credit as punishment for purchasing the Russian-made weapons.
Turkey is testing a component of the S-400 system in Ankara this week, according to a Turkish defense official. The U.S. suspended Turkey’s purchase of F-35 warplanes after the Erdogan government took delivery of the Russian system earlier this year.
American officials are concerned that sensitive technology in the F-35, which is designed to evade such a system, could be compromised and used to improve Russian technology if Turkey has both.
After the meeting with Erdogan at the White House, Risch said the Senate should pause its sanctions push if Turkey agreed to eliminate the S-400 system from its arsenal.
That goodwill appears to have been squandered as Turkey moves forward with the S-400. The Senate would likely give priority to the Risch-Menendez sanctions proposal, which is slightly different than the House-passed version and could be amended further as it moves through committee.
The other Senate proposal, sponsored by Senators Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, and Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, would also prohibit U.S. purchases of Turkish sovereign debt.
The House bill and the two Senate versions would all sanction Halkbank, a Turkish state-owned bank.
Bloomberg News reported in October that Erdogan had made repeated appeals to President Donald Trump to avoid charges against the bank, one of Turkey’s biggest lenders. Trump has asked the Treasury and Justice Departments to look into the impact of U.S. sanctions on a Turkish state-owned bank after being lobbied by Turkey’s president, a Treasury official acknowledged in a letter last week to Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat.
Van Hollen said he and Graham were ready to support whatever measure would move the fastest through Congress.
“You don’t reward conduct that Erdogan engaged in with a White House visit,” Van Hollen said in reference to the Turkish leader’s Nov. 13 visit. “Erdogan seems determined to move forward with the S-400. We’re making it clear that will come with a significant cost.”
Graham said last week he would support the Senate simply taking up the House bill, which would be the quickest way to get it through Congress and to President Donald Trump for his signature.
The House also adopted a resolution formally recognizing the Armenian genocide on the same day it passed the Turkey sanctions.
Erdogan considered canceling his visit after the genocide vote. Turkey’s foreign ministry issued a statement before the vote saying that while the country acknowledges what it calls the “suffering of Armenians” during World War I, it “objects to the one-sided presentation of this tragedy as a genocide.”
Graham, a Trump ally, blocked the Senate from adopting that measure by unanimous consent on the same day that senators met with Erdogan. The White House asked for the block and Graham told Axios that he complied because he did not want to anger Erdogan while he was in town.
But Graham last week warned Erdogan in a speech that buying the S-400 system and activating it would result in the Senate passing a sanctions bill -- and that “will be the beginning of the end of the relationship between us and Erdogan’s Turkey.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Flatley in Washington at dflatley1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, John Harney, Anna Edgerton
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