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Trying to Make Sense of the Turkey-U.S. Rift
I have just authorized a doubling of Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum with respect to Turkey as their currency, the Turkish Lira, slides rapidly downward against our very strong Dollar! Aluminum will now be 20% and Steel 50%. Our relations with Turkey are not good at this time!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 10, 2018
And that, dear readers, is how President Trump sent the Turkish Lira plunging nearly 15 percent.
U.S.-Turkey relations have not been good for some time—to the
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Not everything that is bad for Turkey is good for Armenians.
For a start, there are thousands of Armenians living in Turkey; some have been there for centuries, others have immigrated (illegally) from the Republic of Armenia and send remittances back home. Clearly this economic crisis in Turkey is not good for them.
Second, the Trump Administration’s anti-Muslim foreign policy can potentially be devastating for Armenia if it leads to war with Iran. Indeed, we should be extremely worried at the extent to which Trump panders to Evangelicals (and this latest focus on pastor Brunson is an example of that) and therefore Israel. Israel is Azerbaijan’s closest ally and aids and abets Azerbaijan in the Artsakh conflict.
Finally, as the author correctly alludes to, any time in history that Russia and Turkey have made a deal, it has been at the expense of Armenia.
Yes, we should be very careful of the Turkish – Russian alliance.
But are we sure that’s the reason for this editorial and not just anti-Trumpism?