Turkey in threat to stop buying US iphones
President Erdogan tells Donald Trump that he can do without Apple as he has home-grown tech
Turkey’s president escalated tensions with the US yesterday by calling for a boycott of American electronics, amid reports that diplomatic talks had stalled over the issue of a detained pastor. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan suggested Ankara would stop buying Us-made iphones.
TURKEY’S president escalated tensions with the US yesterday by calling for a boycott of American electronics, amid reports that diplomatic talks had stalled over the issue of a detained pastor.
Showing no signs of backing down in a standoff with Donald Trump, the US president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan suggested that Ankara would stop buying iphones and would instead purchase Korean or Turkish smart phones.
“If they have the iphone, there is Samsung elsewhere. We have Vestel,” he said, referring to the Turkish appliances manufacturer. Mr Erdoğan renewed calls for Turkish citizens to convert their dollars to liras as the latter began to rally after dropping to a record low on Sunday. However, financial experts questioned whether such a move would have much of an effect given Turkey’s current purchasing power.
“I can’t imagine Apple is too worried about this,” said Neil Wilson of Markets.com, “but it nevertheless points to a worrying deterioration in relations between Ankara and Washington.”
Some even pointed to the irony of lashing out at an American tech company. Mr Erdoğan fended off a coup attempt two years ago by sending out appeals to his supporters via Facetime, the Apple video chat app. On the streets of Istanbul, reaction to their president’s defiance was mixed. Arif Simsek, a shop owner, said: “We supported him with our lives on July 15,” referring to the failed putsch. “And now we will support him with our goods. We will support him until the end.”
But another, Umit Yilmaz, told Reuters he was worried about the impact. “I have a 16-year-old daughter. See if you can take her iphone away.”
Talks between the two Nato countries have been paralysed over Turkey’s refusal to free Andrew Brunson, an American evangelical pastor who stands accused of espionage and terrorism related to the 2016 putsch. John Bolton, a White House national security adviser, told Serdar Kilic, Turkey’s ambassador in Washington, on Monday that there was nothing to discuss until Mr Brunson was freed.
During a Nato summit in July, the US believed it had agreed to swap Mr Brunson in return for a Turkish actress held by Israel over her alleged links to Hamas. Ebru Özkan was let go the next day, but the pastor was moved out of prison and into house arrest in Izmir. Ismail Cem Halavurt, Mr Brunson’s lawyer, yesterday appealed again to a Turkish court to release him. He said the court had up to seven days to decide. Mr Brunson, who faces up to 35 years in jail if found guilty, denies charges of gathering intelligence using his religious work as cover, and working to convert Kurds to Christianity to “divide” the country.
Mr Erdoğan, who has signalled his defiance on the issue, says that the US “cannot tame” his country with threats. He went on to warn Mr Trump that he was risking the loss of a strategic ally.