The urgings of the new US Ambassador to Ankara, Jeff Flake, were published in the Cumhuriyet newspaper by Mehmet Ali Yalçındağ, Chairman of the Turkey-U.S. Business Council (TAİK) operating under the umbrella of the Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkey (DEİK).
According to the Turkish version of the Independent and republished by Olympia, Ambassador Flake called on American companies leaving Russia, following the sanctions imposed for its invasion of Ukraine, to go to Turkey!
As Yalçındağ said in a meeting with Flake, they were informed that the American companies were invited to relocate their activities to Turkey, arguing that the country is a safe harbour and there are industries and factories ready for production.
Recall that some of the companies that have ceased operations in Russia are BP, Shell, Exxon, Daimler, Ford, Nike, Adidas, McDonald's, KFC, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Airbnb, Netflix, Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Apple, Levi's, Walt Disney, Sony.
Who is Flake who until recently had anti-Turkish positions?
Impressive, however, is Flake's shift in position - the Republican who supported Democrat Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
Flake was an Arizona senator from 2013-2019 and a member of the House of Representatives. He withdrew from the Senate in disagreement with the Donald Trump administration.
The new Biden government appointed him ambassador to Ankara. He has in the past been clearly opposed to Turkish policy.
Flake even said that if Turkey buys a new S-400 battery or other Russian weapons in the future, it may face additional sanctions.
He was in favor of recognising the Armenian genocide, while he had angered Ankara when he said that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was authoritarian and oppressive.
The ambassador had also mentioned Cyprus, clarifying that there is no two-state solution and that the actions for the partial opening of Varos are a clear violation of the UN Security Council resolutions.
So how he got today to invite giant companies to settle in Turkey, is at least questionable or proves the new US shift towards Greece's neighbouring country, once again!
