Turkish opposition, except pro-Kurdish HDP, condemns US sanctions

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Four major political parties at the Turkish Parliament united their voice in condemning US sanctions on two key figures in President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s administration in a statement on Thursday that excluded the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).

“We say ‘no’ to American threats with the solidarity and determination of our people. We strongly protest the sanctioning decision by the US that targeted two ministers of Turkey,” a joint declaration of the parliamentary groups led by Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) read.

The other undersigned were AKP’s junior far-right ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), secularist main opposition Republican Peoples’ Party (CHP), and the ultranationalist IYI (Good) Party, Kurdistan 24’s Ankara bureau reported.

CHP’s head Kemal Kilicdaroglu called for unspecified sanctions on the US, whereas an IYI official suggested the Turkish government seizes the Trump business towers in Istanbul.

Suleyman Soylu, the Interior Minister, and Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul were the recipients of the punitive measure by the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) over their role in the continued detention of American pastor Andrew Brunson whom the Turkish judiciary accuses of links with Kurdish rebels and coup-plotters.

The parties said the “existence” and institutions of Turkey were the real targets of the sanctions, calling for retaliation in kind from Ankara.

Financial markets in Turkey reacted negatively to the reports as the Turkish Lira continued to take plunges down to 5.09, the lowest ever against the US Dollar, after having broken the previous record of 5.00 the day earlier.

Finance and Treasury Minister, and Erdogan’s US-educated son-in-law, Berat Albayrak, played down the effect news from Washington created on the Turkish economy, saying it would be “limited.”

The HDP has not made any statement on the sanctions.

However, one of the HDP lawmakers, Ahmet Sik of Istanbul, who as a Turkish journalist fiercely critical of the government served time in prison until March this year, likened the US move to scoring a goal in football.

“Goal...,” he tweeted, quoting a news story on the sanctions.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany