Using unprecedented rhetoric for its NATO ally Turkey, the United States resorted to threats to win the release of Andrew Craig Brunson, an evangelical pastor from North Carolina jailed on terror and espionage charges.
One day after a Turkish court ordered his release from jail and commuted his detention to house arrest, U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence threatened economic sanctions against Turkey.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday blasted Turkey over its detention of an American Christian pastor and threatened Ankara with U.S. sanctions unless the man was freed.
"To President (Recep Tayyip) Erdoğan and the Turkish government, I have a message on behalf of the president of the United States of America: release Pastor Andrew Brunson now or be prepared to face the consequences.
"If Turkey does not take immediate action to free this innocent man of faith and send him home to America, the United States will impose significant sanctions on Turkey until Pastor Andrew Brunson is free," Pence said on behalf of President Donald Trump at an event hosted by the U.S. State Department.
Following the remarks made by Mike Pence over the Brunson case in Turkey, President Donald Trump said the U.S. would hit Turkey with "large sanctions" over a American pastor detained on terror and espionage charges, and he called for the pastor's immediate release.
Tweeting from aboard Air Force One, Trump said: "The United States will impose large sanctions on Turkey for their long time detainment of Pastor Andrew Brunson, a great Christian, family man and wonderful human being." Trump said Brunson "is suffering greatly. This innocent man of faith should be released immediately!"
Brunson, 50, an evangelical Christian pastor originally from North Carolina, was let out of jail Wednesday, after 1 1/2 years, to serve house arrest because of "health problems," according to Turkey's official Anadolu news agency.
Brunson was moved from jail to house arrest on Wednesday, but Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the move was "not enough."
Brunson was arrested in September 2016, in the aftermath of the July 15, 2016, coup attempt in Turkey blamed on Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ). He is accused of links to FETÖ as well as the PKK terrorist group. A court in the western city of İzmir has ordered his imprisonment to be commuted to house arrest, citing Brunson's health problems. He will be also fitted with an ankle monitor and barred from leaving the country. He is scheduled to appear before a court in October for his third hearing, after the court rejected an appeal for his release in a July 18 hearing.
Witnesses in the case claimed Brunson had harbored PKK supporters in his church and coordinated a U.S. arms shipment to a group affiliated with the PKK in Syria. The indictment against Brunson also says he had contact with Bekir Baz, a fugitive senior member of FETÖ who was in charge of the group's network in Izmir. Turkish prosecutors say Brunson used his guise as a pastor to commit crimes for terrorist groups and coordinated actions with them. Apart from Baz, Brunson also contacted Murat Safa, a Turk who was "an aide" of Baz within FETÖ and Taner Kılıç, another FETÖ-linked man who is being tried for membership of a terrorist group. The indictment also includes a text message by Brunson to an unidentified U.S. soldier. Brunson says in the message that they would "win in the end" while speaking about the July 15 coup attempt.
The Brunson case has been a thorny issue between Washington and Ankara. Washington has called on Ankara to release him, ignoring the fact that the judiciary is independent from the political administration. In a tweet after last week's hearing, Trumpclaimed Brunson has been "held hostage" and urged Erdoğan "do something to free this wonderful Christian husband and father."
The pastor faces 35 years in jail on charges of espionage, committing crimes on behalf of FETÖ and the PKK.
Turkey's counterterrorism fight has repeatedly faced obstructions and objections from the U.S. Washington went the extra mile and briefly suspended visas for Turkish citizens when Metin Topuz, an employee at the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul, was arrested for links to FETÖ last year. Scathing remarks from U.S. officials on the arrest of Topuz again drew the ire of Ankara, who in return pointed to the independence of the country's judiciary.
Threatening sanctions at every opportunity against its ally is nothing new for the United States but it is the first time that a high-ranking official such as Pence has openly voiced them. A group of U.S. lawmakers earlier tried to push sanctions against Turkey over the imprisonment of Brunson and Turkey's move to purchase Russian S-400 missile system.
