How the EU's Belarus sanctions deal was unlocked in October 2020
A look back at the European Council's 2 October 2020 agreement, which tied sanctions on Belarus to a warning to Turkey.
What did it take for the European Council to agree on sanctions against Belarus, as reported on 2 October 2020, four days before 6 October 2020? The answer lay partly outside Belarus itself.
The sanctions were a response to the 2020 Belarusian presidential election and the protests that followed, which prompted international reactions and shaped Belarus–European Union relations. Yet the decision did not move in a straight line. Cyprus had been opposing the measures.
The obstacle was lifted through a linked arrangement: the Council also agreed on a warning to Turkey. In this way, a question of European Union–Turkey relations became part of the path to agreement on Belarus.
What the episode showed
The outcome shows how a single foreign-policy decision in the Council could depend on a separate dossier. Cyprus's opposition was set aside once the Turkey warning was included, and the Belarus sanctions were agreed alongside it.
By 6 October 2020, then, the Council's position on both Belarus and Turkey had already been set out in that 2 October agreement.
