Turkey’s top business association has confirmed receipt of a letter from the US Treasury Department warning of possible sanctions if it continues doing business with Russia.
Washington is increasingly concerned that the Russian government and companies are using Turkey to circumvent Western financial and trade restrictions imposed in response to the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine six months ago.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin agreed to step up economic cooperation at a summit in the Black Sea resort of Sochi earlier this month.
Official data shows that between May and July, the value of Turkish exports to Russia increased by almost 50 percent year-on-year.
Turkey’s imports of Russian oil are skyrocketing, and both sides have agreed to switch to ruble payments for natural gas exported by Kremlin-linked giant Gazprom.
US Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo paid a rare visit to Ankara and Istanbul in June to express Washington’s concern that Russian oligarchs and big business are using Turkish facilities to evade Western sanctions.
NATO member Turkey – which has good relations with both Moscow and Kyiv – has sought to remain neutral in the conflict and has refused to join the international sanctions regime.
Adeyemo followed this up with a letter to the Turkish business association TUSIAD and the American Chamber of Commerce in Turkey, warning that companies and banks were at risk of being sanctioned themselves.
TUSIAD said in a statement on Tuesday that it had forwarded the letter to Turkey’s foreign and finance ministries.
The contents of the letter were first reported by the Wall Street Journal this week.
– ‘Risk of US sanctions’ –
“Any person or entity providing material support to U.S.-designated persons is itself at risk of U.S. sanctions,” Adeyemo wrote.
“Turkish banks cannot expect to establish appropriate relationships with sanctioned Russian banks and maintain their appropriate relationships with major global banks and access to the US dollar and other major currencies.”
The economic cooperation deal sealed by Erdogan and Putin includes an agreement for more Turkish banks to start processing Russia’s Mir payment system.
Turkish officials have not officially replied to Adeyemo’s letter.
Broader cooperation with Russia could help shore up Turkey’s struggling economy ahead of next year’s general election.
Erdogan has previously argued that Ankara cannot join Western sanctions against Moscow because of Turkey’s heavy reliance on Russian oil and natural gas imports.
“Our economy is such that imposing sanctions on Russia would hurt Turkey the most,” Erdogan’s foreign policy adviser Ibrahim Kalin said in June.
“We have taken a clear approach. For the moment, Westerners have accepted that.”
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