The reason we have refused to sign the joint parliamentary declaration on US sanctions

Statement from our Parliamentary Group Deputies:

As the HDP, we took a stance against Turkey’s S-400 missile agreement with Russia from the first day on. We also stated that the AKP government’s inconsistent approach, which reduces diplomacy and bilateral relations with the United States to personal relations with US President Trump was unsustainable. Associated with the Syria War and the bargaining on Afrin, the S-400 agreement cannot be regarded as a simple military trade agreement. We do not find it sincere and rational to act as if the imposition of CAATSA sanctions, which have been applied automatically since 2017 to countries that purchase military equipment from Russia, is an unexpected development.

The AKP government, which has isolated Turkey in the international arena, is responsible for these sanctions. Had even a fraction of our warnings been heeded, Turkey would not find itself where it is now. The AKP government must seriously think about its wrong policies.

Apparently, the US government has opted for some of the lightest of the 12 CAATSA sanctions and limited them to some defence industry officials for now. If the S-400 crisis is not tackled, the sanctions may expand beyond the current limits and reach a level that could economically devastate the peoples of Turkey, who already face a tough challenge. It is this probable development in the near future that we really need to prevent.

For years we have been criticizing the AKP government's policies and we have strived to prevent Turkey from facing such a situation. We maintain the same attitude today. The way to act against sanctions is not by aligning with the government's policies, which are pushing the country towards an abyss, but by standing up against those very policies and showing our peoples an alternative way out. We see the debates around the S-400, F-35, CAATSA as a militarist game taking shape around the terrible policies of the government and we once again say that we will not take part in this game.

Meral Danış Beştaş & Saruhan Oluç
HDP Parliamentary Group Deputies
15 December 2020