EU warns Turkey about breaking sanctions against Russia

Announcing the eighth package of sanctions against Russia after the invasion of Ukraine, the European Union (EU) warned Turkish companies, which have been increasingly collaborating with Russia and Russian companies since the start of the war, against the risk of being covered by these sanctions.

Mairead McGuinness, Member of the European Commission in Charge of Financial Services, Financial Stability and Capital Markets Union, gave information about the new sanctions to government officials and business representatives with whom he met in Ankara yesterday and brought up the warnings of Brussels.

Just one day after the EU ambassadors agreed on the new sanctions package, Commissioner McGuinness, who was in Ankara, met with Trade Minister Mehmet Muş, Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati and Central Bank Governor Şahap Kavcıoğlu. The commission member held a meeting with the leading associations and institutions of the business world at the dinner.

In the statement made by the EU delegation, it was stated that “Commissioner McGuinness is visiting Turkey to discuss sanctions policies and further cooperation opportunities and to meet with members of the government”.

The European official, in a brief statement on Twitter after his official contacts in Ankara, stated that he is happy to be in Turkey, a strong partner of the EU in a period of uncertainty, and said: The opportunity arose to convey that we are strongly focused on the needs of

The development that made McGuinness’s Ankara contacts more important was that the visit took place right after the EU accepted the eighth sanctions package against Russia. The EU’s new sanctions package, which has been widely discussed due to Russia’s cap on oil sales, includes import and export restrictions as well as deterring individuals and organizations that circumvent the sanctions by fraudulent means.

The EU imposes new export restrictions in order to make it difficult for Russia to access military, industrial and technological products, and to prevent it from developing its defense and security-related sectors. prohibits its sale.

Processed and semi-processed Russian steel products, machinery and electrical equipment, plastic products, vehicles, textiles, shoes, leather, ceramics, some chemical products and non-gold jewelry are included in the scope of import restrictions, which are expected to damage the Russian economy by around 7 billion euros.

The same package also affects companies that provide services to Russia in areas such as advanced technology, engineering and software.

Thus, the EU expands the scope of sanctions to include individuals, institutions and organizations as well as companies doing business with Russia.

Turkey announced that it would not comply with the sanctions decisions taken by the USA, EU and other Western partners after Russia’s attack against Ukraine on February 24, and that in principle it would only respect the sanctions taken by the United Nations Security Council.

The vacuum created by the termination of activities by European and other international companies complying with the sanctions was filled by Turkish companies, which started an intensive work with Russian companies.

In this process, many Russian companies established in Turkey started to use Turkey as a base for their import and export activities. According to the report of the Financial Times, exports from Turkey to Russia have increased by nearly 50 percent compared to last year.

According to EU diplomats, the number of Russian companies increasing their activities in Turkey is increasing day by day.

According to Brussels, which closely monitors the Ro-Ro trade from Samsun to Novorosisk and the increasing road TIR trade, this trade with Russian companies is likely to breach the EU sanctions packages.

This uneasiness of the EU was also expressed by French President Emmanuel Macron, who met with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the margin of the European Political Community summit held in Prague. In the statement made by the French Presidency after the Erdogan-Macron meeting, it was noted that the French President called on Erdogan to “fight against the efforts to circumvent the sanctions imposed on Russia”.

Reminding that almost half of Turkey’s exports are to the EU, diplomats note that Brussels does not want trade with Turkey to be damaged and therefore wants to work closely with Ankara.

According to the same diplomats, the development that further increased the uneasiness of Brussels was President Erdogan’s statement that a memorandum of understanding was signed with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who visited Sochi on 6 August, aiming to deepen the trade and economic cooperation between the two countries, but the content of which was not disclosed. . Diplomats note that the suspicion that the content of the agreement may not have been made public because it overlaps with some sanction areas has been voiced in Brussels and Washington.

It is known that upon these concerns from the West, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs made a presentation to the ambassadors in Ankara, giving the message that the concerns were unfounded and that the imposition of sanctions would have harmful consequences.

However, one of the most concrete developments of this process was the closure of the Mir card, which was opened for use by Russian citizens in Turkey, as a result of pressure from the West to Turkish banks.

It was learned that McGuinness, in his Ankara contacts, gave the message of increasing commercial cooperation with Turkey and developing the potential, and called for close cooperation with Brussels so that the sanctions would not be violated. It is stated that the EU Commissioner brought similar messages to the agenda at the dinner he held with the representatives of the business world.

It is noted that during McGuinness’s contacts with Finance Minister Nebati and Central Bank Governor Kavcıoğlu, he discussed the policies followed within the scope of the ‘Turkish Economy Model’ and received information about the next process from his interlocutors.

Evaluations made in Brussels predict that the model followed by Turkey will cause more losses to the Turkish economy and especially to the real economy in the future, and that inflation will not tend to decrease in the short term.