The new US sanctions against Turkey over its purchase of Russian air defense systems stand to inflict heavy damage on the flourishing Turkish defense industry unless Ankara moves to compromise with Washington to limit the duration and impact of the penalties.
The sanctions, based on the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), were announced Dec. 14, more than a year after Turkey took delivery of the S-400 systems from Russia. President Donald Trump — long under fire for going easy on his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan — actually surprised Ankara by greenlighting the sanctions weeks before his term expires.