President: We’ll look for ‘new friends’
Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned yesterday that Turkey would ‘‘seek new friends’’ after the United States ‘‘upset and annoyed’’ Ankara with sanctions that triggered a currency crisis.
Turkey’s president told Donald Trump to respect its sovereignty ‘‘before it is too late’’, plunging relations between the Nato allies to their lowest in decades.
Writing in The New York Times, a newspaper often the subject of attacks from the US president, Erdogan said: ‘‘Washington must give up the misguided notion that our relationship can be asymmetrical and come to terms with the fact that Turkey has alternatives. Failure to reverse this trend of unilateralism and disrespect will require us to start looking for new friends and allies.’’
The Turkish lira tumbled more than 16 per cent on Friday after Washington imposed harsh steel and aluminium tariffs to compel it to turn over a jailed American pastor.
Trump announced the punitive doubling of steel tariffs, which were imposed in protest over the detention of Andrew Brunson, a pastor, who was arrested on terrorism charges after the attempted coup against Mr Erdogan in 2016, saying: ‘‘Our relations with Turkey are not good at this time.’’
The US is the biggest destination for Turkish steel exports with 11 per cent of the Turkish export volume.
The country has weathered several tough economic crises over the decades but has traditionally always had Washington’s staunch support.
Erdogan framed Turkey’s crisis as a ‘‘national battle’’ against economic enemies including the US at a rally in the Black Sea town of Rize yesterday.
‘‘If they have their dollar, we have the people, we have Allah,’’ he said, appealing to his religious Muslim base. His supporters in the crowd ripped up $1 notes in protest.
The president, who has consolidated unprecedented power through a series of referendums, advised Turks to show solidarity by converting any stashed-away gold or foreign currency to Turkish lira in a bid to wage a ‘‘war of independence’’ against America. – Telegraph Group