A century on from Atatürk’s proclamation that the republic would be ‘happy, prosperous and victorious’, the founder of modern Turkey would today find his vision being questioned. In 2016, a failed coup left over 300 people dead. During the mass detentions that followed, nearly 2,500 judges were arrested. Within two years, Turkey’s credit bubble had burst: the lira halved in value against the US dollar, inflation hit 25% and GDP, which had been growing at 7%, flatlined.
Following the withdrawal of US troops in October 2019, the invasion of northeast Syria to create a safe zone along Turkey’s southern border led US President Donald Trump to tweet: ‘I will totally destroy and obliterate the economy of Turkey.’ In October, the House of Representatives voted by 403 to 16 to impose a series of sweeping sanctions on Turkey. But US politicians remain split, with senate majority leader Mitch McConnell warning that sanctions would cause economic damage and alienate the Turkish people.‘It is going to be a very difficult situation for Turkey,’ notes Yasin Beceni, managing partner at Istanbul firm BTS & Partners, one of several firms that have been involved in advising Turkish clients on sanctions. ‘Because we are less familiar with the US political environment – and US firms with the Turkish legal environment – we have been in close co-operation with Covington [& Burling] in Washington,’ he says.
