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Turkey backs out on sanctions. This is not only profitable for Erdogan – but also for the West.
After the start of the attack on the Ukraine, the Russian economic leadership was clear: Due to ever stricter sanctions, the direct import of Western products will be impossible in the long term.
The Moscow Ministry of Trade wanted to prevent the exclusion from the world market through so-called parallel imports and compiled a 23-page list of cars and spare parts, mobile phones, household appliances and cosmetic products. From now on, these goods, declared for civilian consumption, should find their way from Asia, Europe and America to Russia via third countries.
Exports to Russia are booming
Turkey benefits from this transit market. The country on the main trade route between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea has increased exports to Russia by 86 percent since the outbreak of war in Ukraine.
Legend:
Recep Tayyip Erdogan still exports to Russia – and at the same time acts as a middleman for Western companies.
Turkish Presidency via AP
For Serhat Güvenç, Professor of International Relations at Istanbul’s Kadir Has University, it is clear: “As a hub for trade with Russia, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sees an opportunity to give his country new strength in the ongoing inflation and currency crisis.” Because the ports of Mersin, Izmir and Istanbul are now full of goods just waiting to be shipped to Russian Black Sea ports.
Mahmut Işık, Managing Director of Medkon Lines, one of Turkey’s leading transport companies, also confirms: “Since the large international cargo companies have cut their connections to Russia because of the embargo, their ships are now calling at our ports. Here the goods are unloaded and transported on to the Black Sea with the help of smaller Turkish, Arab or Russian shipping companies.”
This is legal, because Turkey does not participate in the Western embargo against Russia. Ankara explains this course as follows: Economic embargoes are only signed if they have been approved by the UN Security Council. However, because Russia has a veto right there, this scenario is unlikely to materialize.
Suddenly the sender disappears
But European exporters are also trying to stay in business with Russia via Turkey. But in order not to get into trouble with Brussels and the US government, the containers are given new identities.
“If an exporter from Italy, for example, does not want to see his name on the shipping documents to Russia, he first sells his goods to a third country such as Turkey. From there, the freight and papers go on with a new sender,” explains Cihan Özkal, board member of the Turkish logistics association Utikad.
West fears misappropriation
The USA and the EU want to put an end to this activity. Above all, the government of Joe Biden is putting Turkey under increasing pressure. There is great concern that civilian consumer products will be misused for military purposes as a result of trade in goods.
Serhat Güvenç cites the example of Turkish washing machines: “After the war in Georgia ten years ago, exports of Turkish household appliances exploded. At that time it was said that the chips in washing machines would be used by the Russians in their defense industry.”
Washington now sees a red line, the government in Ankara is coming under increasing pressure and has to reposition itself in the conflict between Russia and the West.