TURKEY: US PRESSURE WILL MAKE US SEEK NEW ALLIES

Diplomatic row with Washington has escalated as currency crisis and economic pressure deepen

Turkey will find “new friends” if the US continues to apply pressure, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday.

The day after US President Donald Trump doubled tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminium, Mr Erdogan said Ankara could pursue trade with countries such as Russia, China and Ukraine using their currencies.

The US move, announced in a tweet by Mr Trump, pushed the Turkish lira down further hours after it had already reached a new low against the dollar.

The lira has dropped about 40 per cent this year, adding pressure to an economy where companies have hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign debt, inflation is soaring and current-account deficit is one of the highest in the world.

Mr Erdogan said the US was turning its back on Turkey and putting relations between the Nato allies in jeopardy.

“This treatment by America of its strategic partner has annoyed us, upset us,” he said.

The US this month imposed sanctions on two Turkish ministers as it seeks the release of an American pastor, Andrew Brunson, who has been in Turkish custody since 2016 on charges of espionage.

Mr Trump insisted that Mr Brunson, who has lived in Turkey for more than 20 years, be freed “immediately”.

Mr Erdogan insists his government cannot interfere with the judicial process.

In an article in The New York

Times yesterday, he wrote: “Failure to reverse this trend of unilateralism and disrespect will require us to start looking for new friends and allies.”

Experts are divided over how the standoff can be resolved. Henri Barkey, a professor at Lehigh University, called the tariffs “an unnecessary escalation” and advised talks between Mr Trump and Mr Erdogan.

But Steven Cook of the Council on Foreign Relations said an early resolution to the crisis was unlikely.