Turkish Minister Soylu mocks US sanctions against him with FETO remarks

Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu, one of two top government officials hit by US sanctions, mocked Washington in comments made Thursday on Twitter.

"We have a property in America: FETO," Soylu wrote, referring to the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), which is behind the bloody coup attempt on July 15, 2016 that left over 250 people martyred and thousands of others injured.
Soylu also tweeted that U.S. based FETO ringleader Fethullah Gulen whom Turkey accuses of masterminding the 2016 failed coup bid, was his only property in the United States.

"We will not leave it there. We will get it," Soylu wrote.

The US imposed sanctions Wednesday on Soylu and Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul under the Global Magnitsky Act, which is used to punish authorities or entities anywhere in the world for human rights abuses and corruption.

It said the two ministers played "leading roles in the arrest and detention" of US pastor Andrew Brunson.

The sanctions mean that all properties belonging to the two are blocked in the US, and US individuals are prohibited from doing business with them.

"I do not have a stick or a single penny either in the US or any other country outside Turkey," Gül said Wednesday. "Maybe I will buy a small olive grove in my hometown Gaziantep one day."

Brunson was arrested in the aftermath of the failed coup and is accused of links to the FETO.