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Originally Posted by Legbreaker
Totally agree with you there. The "military coup" of a few years ago seemed too convenient to my liking - all it did was cement Erdogan in power. I (and others I've spoken to) strongly believe it was a con job specifically designed to give him and his cronies even more power and eliminate any domestic political opposition.
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It could have been as it was a particularly weak coup. It also gave Erdogan the excuse to fire a lot of Turkish military officers and thousands of civil servants who were opposed to him. Also the West has had growing misgivings about Erdogan's motives for sometimes. In July Turkey was kicked off the F-35 stealth fighter programme after buying Russian S-400 SAM systems, as a Russian intelligence platform based close to an F-35 could compromise the technology of the F-35.
Erdogan has built up Turkey's defence industry and they produce a lot of their own weapons, and Erdogan probably thinks he can ride out any threat of sanctions. But Western sanctioning could really hurt the Turkish military. The Turks license produced or buy directly from Western countries. Its army uses the Korean designed Altay tank and German Leopard 2 and a lot of other German and American equipment, while their Air Force combat aircraft are all American.
Financial sanctions will also seriously hurt a weak economy like Turkey. A full US and EU sanction will basically destroy their economy and Erdogan and his allies cannot use or trade in US Dollars or have any transactions with US financial institutions which is devastating. The big British, German, Swiss and Japanese banks also nearly always support a US government financial sanction.