U.S. imposes sanctions on Turkish officials over pastor's detention

[webfact]

U.S. imposes sanctions on Turkish officials over pastor's detention

By Steve Holland and Roberta Rampton

 

U.S. pastor Andrew Brunson reacts as he arrives at his home after being released from the prison in Izmir, Turkey July 25, 2018. Demiroren News Agency, DHA via REUTERS
 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States imposed sanctions on two top officials in Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's Cabinet on Wednesday in a new attempt to get NATO ally Turkey to turn over an American pastor accused of backing a coup attempt against Erdogan two years ago.

 

The U.S. Treasury Department acted against Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul and Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu over the country's imprisonment of Andrew Brunson. The United States has blamed both for being involved in Brunson's arrest and detention.

 

Turkey's Foreign Ministry called Washington's action a "hostile stance" and said it would retaliate. Relations between the United States and Turkey have plummeted over Brunson, who was in custody for 21 months in a Turkish prison until he was transferred to house arrest last week.

 

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters: "We've seen no evidence that Pastor Brunson has done anything wrong, and we believe he is a victim of unfair and unjust detention by the government ofTurkey."

 

On Tuesday, a Turkish court rejected Brunson's appeal to be released from house arrest during his trial on terrorism charges.

 

Anticipation of the U.S. sanctions had already helped to send the Turkish lira to an all-time low against the dollar on Wednesday.

 

Brunson was accused of helping supporters of Fethullah Gulen, the U.S.-based cleric who Turkish authorities say masterminded the 2016 coup attempt against Erdogan in which 250 people were killed. Turkey has waged a two-year effort to have Gulen extradited from the United States. Brunson was also charged with supporting outlawed PKK Kurdish militants.

 

Brunson, who has lived in Turkey for more than two decades, faces up to 35 years in jail if found guilty of the charges, which he denies.

 

U.S. President Donald Trump has raised the case directly with Erdogan, Sanders said. Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo thought they had a deal to get Brunson's release last month. When that failed to materialise, they began ramping up pressure on the Turkish government, aides said.

 

Pence, who has close ties to the evangelical Christian community, has been following Brunson's case since he was arrested and pressing behind the scenes for action, aides said.

 

Pompeo, en route to Singapore, said in Anchorage, Alaska, that the Turkish government refused to release Brunson "after numerous conversations between President Trump and President Erdogan and my conversations with Foreign Minister (Mevlut) Cavusoglu."

“President Trump concluded that these sanctions are the appropriate action," he said.

 

Pompeo spoke with his counterpart by telephone and they planned to meet on the sidelines of ASEAN meetings this week in Singapore, spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.

 

Analysts say relations between the United States and Turkey have come under increasing strain in the past two years over the U.S. role in Syria and Turkey's stronger ties with Russia.

 

(Reporting by Steve Holland and Roberta Rampton; Additional reporting by Lisa Lambert, David Brunnstrom and Tulay Karadeniz; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Peter Cooney)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-08-02

[dirtynomad]

how is that for interfering in another country's justice system.

[kamahele]

45 minutes ago, dirtynomad said:

how is that for interfering in another country's justice system.

It's payback for the unjust treatment of a US citizen and not a very strong bit of payback. They should be issuing travel warnings to citizens traveling to Turkey.

[dirtynomad]

4 hours ago, kamahele said:

It's payback for the unjust treatment of a US citizen and not a very strong bit of payback. They should be issuing travel warnings to citizens traveling to Turkey.

 

unjust treatment?.......he was involved with some serious criminal activities

[sammieuk1]

Erdogan faked his own coup to rout his enemies then pin it on Gulen and elevate himself to super Sultan with the help of the worlds most gullible electorate its the next Syria for sure.? 

[puipuitom]

1 hour ago, dirtynomad said:

 

unjust treatment?.......he was involved with some serious criminal activities

Like... praying the non-muslim way ? Or even worse: help some muslims to brak the submission and convert to christianity, a serious crime in any muslim country...

[JemJem]

Erdogan is causing Turkey to be a pariah state.

 

There have been heavy human rights violations in Turkey; and also, for example, the justice system has been a sad joke since quite some time ago (it will be even worse, as the one man rule has been confirmed very recently in the last general elections). Democracy in Turkey exists only on paper.

 

Shame on all Turkish and non-Turkish liberals, who had thought that an Islamist party/leader could be a democratic one !

 

Even worse times are awaiting Turkey.

 

[stevenl]

14 minutes ago, JemJem said:

Erdogan is causing Turkey to be a pariah state.

 

There have been heavy human rights violations in Turkey; and also, for example, the justice system has been a sad joke since quite some time ago (it will be even worse, as the one man rule has been confirmed very recently in the last general elections). Democracy in Turkey exists only on paper.

 

Shame on all Turkish and non-Turkish liberals, who had thought that an Islamist party/leader could be a democratic one !

 

Even worse times are awaiting Turkey.

 

Yes, ER is determining it all there, so the sanctions should be on him.

[JemJem]

1 hour ago, stevenl said:

Yes, ER is determining it all there, so the sanctions should be on him.

Your guess is as good as mine as to why Erdogan wasn't targetted in this set of sanctions. The reason that comes to my mind is that the US didn't want to escalate the tensions in a major way yet.

 

If Brunson is not able to go back to the US in the near future, will there be a new set of sanctions, which, this time will target Erdogan ? Time will tell of course.

Edited August 2, 2018 by JemJem

[Trouble]

The big problem with how far to go on sanctions is that the USA has two Air Force installations in Turkey. Turkey is part of NATO as well.  Unfortunately, it's all a bit more complicated because the USA certainly does not want to push Turkey too far.  Can't understand why, if he was arrested two years ago, there has not been a trial.  Either bring him to trial or get him out of the country.  Why does Turkey make so much international fuss over the guy?