President Donald Trump has signaled that the US will lift CAATSA sanctions on Turkey, a move that would end a nearly six-year standoff rooted in Ankara’s decision to buy Russian S-400 air defense systems.
The sanctions, originally imposed on December 14, 2020, were Washington’s punishment for Turkey completing a $2.5 billion deal with Russia’s Rosoboronexport. The US banned export licenses to Turkey’s defense sector, froze assets of key officials, and kicked Turkey out of the F-35 fighter jet program entirely.
How we got here
CAATSA, or the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, was designed to penalize countries doing significant business with Russia’s defense sector. Turkey triggered Section 231 of the law by going ahead with the S-400 purchase.
Turkey’s Presidency of Defense Industries and several senior officials were directly targeted. The removal from the F-35 program represented a strategic and economic blow, cutting Turkish defense manufacturers out of a supply chain they had spent years integrating into.
