Turkey crisis: Erdogan claims US behaving like ‘wild wolves’ and turns to Russia for trade

Turkey and Russia have been struck down by crippling tariffs imposed by President Trump, who objected to Mr Erdogan’s plan to use a Russian missile defence system.

Both nations have shunned the US dollar for trade in an act of retaliation three weeks ago, but remarks made by newly elected Mr Erdogan have implied he remains infuriated by the sanctions.

He said: “America behaves like wild wolves. Don’t believe them.

“Using the dollar only damages us. We will not give up. We will be victorious.”

He then added that his country was in negotiations with Russia over non-dollar trade.

Relations between NATO members Turkey and the US took a nose dive last month when President Trump announced steep new tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminium in response to the detention of American pastor Andrew Brunson.

Mr Brunson has been held on terror charges over an alleged coup in 2016.

Washington has pleaded with Ankara that he is innocent, but this had fallen on deaf ears with officials in Turkey.

When Mr Trump declared the trade war with the nation, the lira plummeted to dangerous levels and shed a quarter of its value.

Russia saw its ruble take a tumble to a two-year low after Mr Trump took action on Moscow and applied fresh sanctions in connection with a nerve agent poisoning on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and daughter Yulia in Salisbury, Wiltshire, in March.

Though Russia has remained relatively quiet in its response to the sanctions, President Erdogan has openly voiced his outrage and said dollars, euros and gold were now “the bullets, cannonballs and missiles of the economic war being waged against our country”.

He had also warned that Turkey would soon start “looking for new friends and allies” if Washington did not give up the “misguided notion that our relationship can be asymmetrical”.

He also promised supporters that Turkey was taking the necessary precautions to protect its economy but added “the most important thing is breaking the hands firing these weapons”.