23/10/2019
US president Donald Trump has lifted sanctions on Turkey following Erdogan’s military action against Syrian Kurds.
The sanctions originally put in place to discourage Turkey from the offensive (alleged to be creating a ‘buffer zone’). However, in the absence of withdrawn American troops, in a deal with Vladimir Putin, Russian troops are now active in the area and are assisting Turkish manoeuvres. It would appear that Trump’s decision to relocate many US troops to Iraq has created a power vacuum happily filled by an ever-increasingly powerful Russia.