Greenwald Interviewed on US-Turkey Relations
Michael B. Greenwald (Pardee ’07), Lecturer at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, was recently interviewed on the state of relations between the United States and Turkey after the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctioned two Turkish government officials in response to the imprisonment of an American pastor in Turkey in July.
Greenwald was quoted in an August 7, 2018 article by The Atlantic Council entitled “Ankara and Washington Reach a Boiling Point over American Pastor Imprisonment.”
From the text of the article:
The new sanctions were targeted at Turkey’s Justice and Interior ministers “because they were claimed to be personally responsible for the detention of the pastor and other hostages,” according to Michael Greenwald, Senior Advisor to the President and CEO at the Atlantic Council and former Department of Treasury Attaché in the Middle East.
This may be just the beginning, Greenwald argued, as “the administration may be looking at other Turkish targets [for sanctions], with potential room for scaling up escalation if Turkey doesn’t change behavior. Those targets potentially could include additional Turkish government officials and banks tied to Iran.”
Greenwald noted that the direct sanctioning of Turkish government officials “is quite a move against a NATO ally,” and that the use of Global Magnitsky laws to enact the sanctions is a “noteworthy action.” The United States has not employed the Global Magnitsky act against any other ally. However, in October 2014, the Obama administration banned six Hungarian officials from traveling into the United States based on allegations of corruption, drawing on authorities from President Proclamation 7750 adopted during the Bush administration to bar individuals who have engaged in corrupt practices harmful to US interests. That move, “unprecedented among allies, sent relations with Hungary into a tailspin from which they have not yet recovered, something that does not augur well for the latest sanctions on Turkey,” says Damon Wilson, executive vice president of the Atlantic Council.
Michael B. Greenwald is currently a Senior Vice President of Tiedemann Advisors and is responsible for working with clients and prospective clients and assisting with the Firm’s business development efforts. Michael is also the Senior Advisor to the President and CEO Fred Kempe of the Atlantic Council. Learn more about him here.