ISTANBUL • Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan yesterday said it was wrong of the United States to try to bring Turkey into line with threats, a day after US President Donald Trump doubled tariffs on metal imports from Turkey as the row between the two Nato allies deepened.
The two governments have been at odds over a wide range of topics - from diverging interests in Syria, to Turkey's ambition to buy Russian defence systems, and the case of evangelical pastor Andrew Brunson, who is on trial in Turkey on terrorism charges.
"You can never bring this nation in line with the language of threats," Mr Erdogan told supporters in the Turkish town of Unye on the Black Sea coast. "I am once again calling on those in America: It is a pity that you choose a pastor over your strategic partner in Nato," he said.
After almost 20 months in a Turkish jail, Mr Brunson was moved to house arrest last month by a court. Since then the Trump administration has repeatedly called for his release, while Ankara said the decision was up to the courts.
Washington, in response, sanctioned two Turkish ministers and Mr Trump last Friday announced it was doubling the tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from Turkey, saying relations with Ankara were "not good at this time".
The ailing Turkish lira, which had already lost one-third of its value this year largely over worries about Mr Erdogan's wider control of the economy, crashed further last Friday to a fresh record low, at one point losing 18 per cent, its biggest fall since 2001.
Mr Erdogan yesterday repeated a call to Turks to help support the lira to win what he described was a "war of independence".
"If there are dollars under your pillow, take these out. If there are euros, take these out. Immediately give these to the banks and convert to Turkish lira and by doing this, we fight this war of independence and the future," he said.
Mr Erdogan has said that supporters of a failed military coup two years ago, which Ankara says was organised by a US-based Muslim cleric, were attacking Turkey in new ways since his re-election two months ago.
In an opinion piece in the New York Times, he warned the US that Ankara had other alternatives as allies. "Before it is too late, Washington must give up the misguided notion that our relationship can be asymmetrical and come to terms with the fact that Turkey has alternatives. Failure to reverse this trend of unilateralism and disrespect will require us to start looking for new friends and allies,"Mr Erdogan said.
Turkey, home to the Incirlik air base used by US forces in the Middle East, has been a Nato member since the 1950s. It is host to a critical part of the Western alliance's missile defence system again Iran.
In another opinion piece in the pro-government newspaper Daily Sabah, Mr Erdogan's spokesman, Mr Ibrahim Kalin, said Turkey's efforts to solve the crisis diplomatically had been dismissed by the Trump administration, warning Washington it might completely lose Ankara as an ally.
REUTERS
