Turkey has become the next target of Operation Economic Outcast, as the U.S. Treasury announced Friday that it has sanctioned Istanbul-based Golden Global Bank and cut it off from the U.S. dollar system for serving as a critical financial lifeline to the Iranian regime. 

The bank allegedly moved large sums paid for by China for Iranian oil, funneling the money to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The Turkey-based bank as a result facilitated tens of millions of dollars in transactions that helped Tehran bypass international sanctions and access the global financial system.

"Today, as part of Operation Economic Outcast, Treasury severed the Iranian regime’s critical financial lifelines in Türkiye," the Treasury Department's official X account wrote. "The Office of Foreign Assets Control designated Türkiye-based Golden Global Bank and its subsidiaries, which have facilitated tens of millions of dollars’ worth of transactions for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force and provide the Iranian regime with key correspondent banking access that allows it to move its funds internationally."

While Turkey is technically a NATO ally, its actions increasingly place it at odds with U.S. interests across Europe and the Middle East. 

Under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey has become a safe haven for Hamas leadership, openly shielding operatives who plan attacks against Israel. Ankara also maintains working channels with Iran and has repeatedly sided with Moscow on key security issues. Rather than acting as a reliable partner, Erdoğan’s government has weaponized its NATO membership while pursuing an authoritarian, Islamist foreign policy that supports terror-adjacent groups, destabilizes the Eastern Mediterranean, and remains openly hostile toward an actual American ally: Israel.

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Still, the federal government has been in talks to provide Turkey with advanced American military technology, a move that has raised serious concerns. 

Turkey’s targeting under Operation Economic Outcast could at least send Erdoğan a clear message: the U.S. does not intend to play games when it comes to our enemies, and Ankara can either fall in line or find itself targeted alongside them.