“We are deeply concerned by the U.S. decision to impose sanctions on our country because of the purchase of the S-400 missile system from Russia. We strongly condemn this decision,” Ünal Çeviköz, Istanbul MP from the ranks of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) said in a written statement early Dec. 15.
Çeviköz, a former ambassador, is serving as the foreign policy advisor to CHP Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.
“We never accept these sanctions as the acquisition of S-400s is a sovereign decision of Turkey,” he said, recalling that Turkey was obliged to buy the system from Russia.
“Now what is left to do is to make this $2.5 billion worth system operational as soon as possible,” he added.
Çeviköz suggested that sanctions on Turkey will negatively affect NATO’s strategic capabilities. “Except for the three-year-long arms embargo it had imposed on Turkey in 1975 after the Cyprus Peace Operation, the U.S. has never resorted to sanctions in the past 40 years. Instead of sanctions, we would expect efforts for resolving the issue through dialogue.”
Meral Akşener, the chairperson of the İYİ (Good) Party, also slammed the U.S. decision over imposing sanctions on Twitter.
Sanctioning Turkey does not correspond to the allied relationship between the two countries and won’t contribute to the Turkish-American friendship, she said.