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U.S. Senate committee passes bill restricting loans to Turkey

The U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations during its meeting on Thursday passed a bill restricting U.S. loans to Turkey “until the Turkish government stops the arbitrary detention of U.S. citizens and embassy employees.”

U.S. Senate committee passes bill restricting loans to Turkey

U.S. Senate committee passes bill restricting loans to Turkey

STEPANAKERT, JULY 28, ARTSAKHPRESS: According to the report by Ahval news agency, the bill refers to U.S. citizens including Andrew Brunson, the pastor and long-term resident in Turkey who has become one of many points of friction straining bilateral relations since being arrested on terror charges in 2016.

“We never wanted this bill to be necessary, but we warned the Turkish government that there would be consequences if it did not cease its unjust detention and harassment of U.S. citizens and locally employed embassy staff,” said U.S. Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Senator Bob Corker.

The pastor was released to house arrest on Wednesday after almost two years in detention, but that did not prove enough to deter U.S. President Donald Trump, who tweeted on Wednesday that Turkey would face large sanctions for their treatment of Brunson.

According to the new legislation, the United States executive of the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will oppose all except humanitarian future loans to Turkey by the EBRD and International Financial Corporation (IFC), until the country is “no longer arbitrarily detaining or denying freedom of movement to United States citizens (including dual citizens) or locally employed staff members of the United States mission to Turkey.”

The blockage of new loans will prove a blow to Turkey, which was the largest EBRD borrower with new loans worth $1.8 billion in 2017, and the second largest borrower from the IFC with $927 million in long term loans during the same time period.


     

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