The US sanctions against Turkey and the value drop of the Turkish Lira (TRY) will reflect on Serbia because the announced Turkish investments are now uncertain, said the “Ekonometar” magazine editor in chief Radojka Nikolic. The agreed export of beef from Serbia to Turkey is also uncertain, as is the construction of the Belgrade-Sarajevo highway.

She said she believes the sanctions will be felt by all the countries that have any connection with the Turkish economy and that the crisis will last for a long time.

“Every open economy is vulnerable, as is the Turkish economy which was on the rise in the previous decades but, as usual, the economic development has political consequences,” Nikolic noted. “Thanks to the mix of politics and economy, the US opted to introduce these sanctions for several reasons.”

Some of the reasons, according to her, are the fact that (Turkish President Recep Tayyip) Erdogan became “more powerful” and that Turkey “stumbled upon the US interest zone” – energy sources.

“First of all, Erdogan became more powerful and he became an authoritative leader. From the economic point of view, Turkey ‘stumbled upon a very sensitive interest zone’ for the US, which is energy sources. In June they opened the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) with prospects of connecting this pipeline with the Trans-Atlantic Pipeline which all added up to the US making these moves,” she stressed.

According to Nikolic, it is hard for anyone to predict the outcome of the TRY.