U.S. President Donald Trump is trying to bribe Türkiye by offering to lift U.S. sanctions if Ankara stops buying Russian crude oil. During an Oval Office meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week, Trump expressed his desire for Türkiye to end purchases of Russian oil, reported Middle East Eye. “I’d like him to stop buying any oil from Russia while Russia continues its rampage against Ukraine,” Trump told reporters.
Multiple sources familiar with U.S.-Türkiye discussions said Trump privately linked Türkiye’s Russian oil imports to sanctions imposed in 2020 after Ankara’s purchase of the Russian S-400 air defense system.
There are two difficulties with Trump’s offer, MEE says. One is the difficulty of raising some of the U.S. sanctions. Cutting off Türkiye from the F-35 stealth fighter program in response to the S-400 purchase was mandated by Congress, and there’s no presidential waiver. Secondly, if Trump’s demand includes Russian natural gas, the deal is off, as Russia supplies 25% of Turkiye’s natural gas. “We have agreements with Russia. The winter season is approaching,” Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar told CNN Turk, reported TASS on Oct. 2. “We cannot tell our citizens that there is no gas,” he said. “We need to receive gas from Russia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan,” he remarked,adding that Türkiye imports energy resources based on its needs.
Türkiye has become a major energy hub for transshipment of hydrocarbons from Russia and Central Asia. The TurkStream gas pipeline transports Russian gas to Türkiye and then on to European and other markets. Russia continues to be the main supplier of hydrocarbons to Türkiye through both TurkStream and BlueStream pipelines. In fact, Bayraktar indicated that negotiations with Russia are underway on the extension of the agreement on natural gas supplies to Türkiye via the Blue Stream gas pipeline.
