WASHINGTON – In a remarkable rebuke of a NATO ally, the House on Tuesday approved a biting sanctions bill that could cripple Turkey's economy and would punish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan personally by requiring an assessment of his net worth amid questions about his finances in Turkey.
Lawmakers also passed a deeply contentious measure to commemorate the Armenian genocide, a historic move that will almost certainly exacerbate U.S.-Turkey tensions. The genocide measure officially recognizes the systematic killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923.
"Members of my own family were among those murdered, and my parents fled with my grandparents to America," said Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. "What all of the persecuted had in common was that they were Christians."
For years, Turkey's government had successfully lobbied to kill such congressional resolutions, pressuring presidents and lawmakers alike with sophisticated influence campaigns. The Turks have argued the Armenians who died during that era were victims of civil war and unrest, not genocide. On Tuesday, it passed by an overwhelming vote of 405-to-11, with three lawmakers voting "present."
The genocide and sanctions measures represent "a double whammy" for Turkey, said Bulent Aliriza, director of the Turkey Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington foreign policy institute.
Turkey condemned the House votes, saying the sanctions bill is "incompatible with the spirit of our allied relations under NATO."
The country's minister of foreign affairs denounced the genocide vote as a "shameful decision of those exploiting history."
Pelosi, D-Calif., fast-tracked the sanctions legislation, which goes well beyond President Donald Trump's temporary sanctions on Turkey. Although it passed the House by a vote of 403-to-16, its fate in the Senate is unclear.
Among other things, the legislation would:
• Ban most U.S. arms sales to Turkey and sanction other countries' military transactions.
• Sanctions senior Turkish officials involved in the Syria attack
• Blacklist a state-owned bank that is central to Turkey's economy.
• Require the State Department to provide a detailed account of Erdogan's net worth and income – along with that of his family members.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) during their meeting in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia, 22 October 2019. Turkey launched an offensive targeting Kurdish forces in north-eastern Syria on 09 October, days after the US withdrew troops.
"The carnage that we have seen over the past week against our Kurdish partners and innocent civilians has been unbearable. There must be consequences," Rep. Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in unveiling the sanctions bill. He and the committee's chairman, Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., are the chief sponsors.
Erdogan's press office in Ankara did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump imposed limited sanctions on Turkey on Oct. 14, about five days after Erdogan ordered the military assault on Syrian Kurdish forces, known as the SDF. The president lifted those sanctions nine days later after Turkey agreed to a cease-fire.
Lawmakers in both parties barreled ahead with the two measures to make Erdogan pay for Turkey's assault on U.S.-allied Kurdish forces in Syria even though the fighting has now mostly stopped. Members of Congress say Erdogan's attack unleashed violence and chaos that continues to reverberate across the region.
"America is holding accountable top Turkish officials responsible for human rights abuses, including attacking our Kurdish partners," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. "We're penalizing Turkish financial institutions who perpetuate President Erdogan's corruption and abuses."Pelosi, D-Calif., fast-tracked the sanctions legislation, which goes well beyond President Donald Trump's temporary sanctions on Turkey. Although it passed the House by a vote of 403-to-16, its fate in the Senate is unclear.
Among other things, the legislation would:
• Ban most U.S. arms sales to Turkey and sanction other countries' military transactions.
• Sanctions senior Turkish officials involved in the Syria attack
• Blacklist a state-owned bank that is central to Turkey's economy.
• Require the State Department to provide a detailed account of Erdogan's net worth and income – along with that of his family members.
"The carnage that we have seen over the past week against our Kurdish partners and innocent civilians has been unbearable. There must be consequences," Rep. Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in unveiling the sanctions bill. He and the committee's chairman, Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., are the chief sponsors.
Erdogan's press office in Ankara did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump imposed limited sanctions on Turkey on Oct. 14, about five days after Erdogan ordered the military assault on Syrian Kurdish forces, known as the SDF. The president lifted those sanctions nine days later after Turkey agreed to a cease-fire.
The president's sanctions were little pinpricks," said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., who has sponsored a similar Turkey sanctions bill in the Senate, along with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
When he lifted the sanctions on Oct. 23, Trump said his policy had been a big success.
"By getting that cease-fire to stick, we've done something that's very, very special," he said. "We have avoided another costly military intervention that could've led to disastrous, far-reaching consequences."
But Van Hollen and others said it's not clear what influence, if any, Trump's sanctions had on Turkey.
The House and Senate bills, by contrast, would almost certainly rock Turkey's already fragile economy. And the provisions targeting Erdogan's wealth are particularly provocative, experts say.
Erdogan: From 'broke' to 'well-off'
Both the House and Senate bills would require the State Department, along with U.S. Treasury and intelligence officials, to submit a report to Congress detailing the Erdogan family's assets, investments, business interests, and income.
"There is broad bipartisan support for getting more information about the sources of Erdogan's wealth," Engel said in a statement to USA TODAY. "As Erdogan continues to make policy decisions that destabilize the region and threaten international security, we need to know the full picture of his financial interests."
The report would have to include financial information about the Turkish president's spouse, children, parents and siblings – and Erdogan would see it as a slap in the face, said Aykan Erdemir, a former member of the Turkish Parliament who is now a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a hawkish Washington think tank.
"Erdogan was known to be broke when he entered politics," Erdemir said. "Now he is a well-off man." But there has been little public accounting for that transformation. In 2017, the leader of Turkey's main opposition party said he had documents showing that members of Erdogan's family, with the help of associates, had transferred at least $15 million to an offshore company in 2011 and 2012. As Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the opposition leader, began addressing parliament regarding the alleged offshore accounts, the state-controlled broadcaster cut the transmission, according to a Voice of America account. Senior members of Erdogan's party denounced Kilicdaroglu's remarks as false.
Also in 2017, an investigative news outlet focused on the Black Sea region reported that Erdogan's family owned at least three offshore companies in the Isle of Man.
"Since around 2008, the Erdogan family has operated a network of companies that stretches from Malta to Turkey and ends up in the Isle of Man," the theblacksea.eu reported in a November 2017 story. "Together, they act as an opaque offshore network designed to obscure the family's ownership" of a $25 million oil and chemicals tanker called the Agdash, the outlet said.
Erdogan has denied involvement in the activities and blasted the allegations from Turkey's opposition party as "lies."
If Erdogan and his family's finances were to be exposed, "he would see this as a major threat," Erdemir said. "In Turkey, he has pretty much silenced all the media, and no one would dare to do such an expose. ... But if it's coming from Congress, he would perceive this as very damaging."
Van Hollen and others say the public – in the U.S. and in Turkey – has a right to know if Erdogan and his family have foreign investments that might be swaying his official actions, most notably Turkey's increasingly friendly relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"The goal is to get the facts and find out where Erdogan's allegiances are, including his financial dealings," Van Hollen said.
Targeting a state-owned bank
The House and Senate bills would also sanction a powerful state-owned bank that is enmeshed in a U.S. money laundering and fraud investigation.
Last week, federal prosecutors in New York charged Halkbank with evading U.S. sanctions on Iran by moving billions of dollars in Iranian oil and gas proceeds back to Tehran and disguising some of the transactions as involving food, medicine and other humanitarian aid.
"High-ranking government officials in Iran and Turkey participated in these scheme," the six-count indictment alleges. "Some officials received bribes worth tens of millions of dollars" to promote the scheme and shield it from the U.S. scrutiny.
Halkbank is the second-largest state-owned bank in Turkey, and Erdogan personally lobbied Trump to intervene in the case, according to reports last week from Bloombergand the New York Times. Bloomberg reported that Trump had tasked his attorney general and Treasury secretary to deal with Erdogan's repeated pleas to avoid the charges.
If Congress sanctions Halkbank, "that's a big deal," said Aliriza. He and others said it would link Turkey's incursion into Syria to the U.S. criminal case and would deal a heavy blow to the Turkish economy.
The House bill is likely to pass with bipartisan support, as lawmakers in both parties clamor for a more forceful U.S. response to Turkey's actions.
Critics say Trump's Oct. 6 decision to withdraw U.S. troops from the Turkey-Syria border region gave Erdogan the green light to attack the Kurds, who have been America's chief ally in the fight against Islamic State terrorists. Trump administration officials have argued that the president's decision simply removed those troops from harm's way and the U.S. never promised the Kurds they would protect them against a Turkish military attack.
"Congress must speak out and show decisive action to hold accountable those who created this catastrophe: President Erdogan, who is directing this slaughter, and President Trump, who opened the door to the Turkish incursion and betrayed our Kurdish partners," said Engel, the bill's lead sponsor and Foreign Affairs Committee chairman.
Bill could face a major hurdle in the Senate
"We need to think extremely carefully before" imposing sanctions on a NATO ally, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said last week. He said it's not clear if such economic penalties would weaken Erdogan inside Turkey or "rally the country to cause." He said the effect of such a bill also could hurt American companies and U.S. allies whose economies are closely intertwined with Turkey's.
Van Hollen said he hopes the House's actions will put pressure on McConnell to reconsider that position.
"The Senate needs to stop twiddling its thumbs and take action," he said.
USA Today. Deidre Shesgreen, October 29, 2019 with the headline, 'Double whammy': House approves sweeping Turkey sanctions bill, recognizes Armenian genocide.
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October 30, 2019
Voices4America Post Script. Look at this! House votes supported by Democrats and Republicans oppose Trump, not once, but twice. They imposed sanctions on Turkey, and they recognized past Turkish crimes - the terrible Armenian genocide.#ErdoganPutin
Addendum. Here is an article, explaining that Trump's Syrian policy has led to the US being sidelined': Turkey and Russia agree to joint patrols in Syria Trump's evil has consequences, not just for the Kurds but for America's position.
