Pastor Andrew Brunson, who was imprisoned in Turkey for two years before President Donald Trump secured his release back in Trump’s first term, is ratcheting up pressure on Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID) to get Trump’s Religious Freedom ambassador confirmed before Christmas.
President Donald Trump sat next to newly released American Pastor Andrew Brunson in the Oval Office Saturday and said that under his administration “they’re tending not to take” Americans, but he refrained from detailing why.
President Donald Trump said there was “no deal there at all” behind the release of Pastor Andrew Brunson from Turkish prison following his two-year detention.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told members of his Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP) on Friday that the United States had attempted an “economic assassination” on Turkey, one that his administration has largely “stopped.”
A spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday the American response to the detention of Pastor Andrew Brunson is an “unacceptable” attempt to interfere with the Turkish legal system.
National Security Adviser John Bolton said on Tuesday that the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan “made a big mistake in not releasing Pastor Brunson.”
The Trump administration would consider relenting on U.S.-imposed sanctions on Turkey related to the detention of Pastor Andrew Brunson if he is released, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters Wednesday.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lashed out against the United States on Tuesday and called for a boycott on American electronics to retaliate against the Trump administration’s tariffs on steel. It was not clear from Erdogan’s remarks if he plans to implement a government ban on U.S. electronics imports or merely wants Turks to refrain from buying them.
The U.S. Embassy in Ankara has denied reports that American pastor Andrew Brunson will be released from house arrest and allowed to return back to the United States.
Turkey’s lira currency crumbles as Trump turns the screws after Erdogan double-cross; Trump turns the screws; How Erdogan apparently double-crossed Trump.
The Turkish lira took a nosedive on Friday as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan decisively lost the first battle in his “economic war” against the United States.
President Donald Trump directed the U.S. Department of Treasury to sanction two Turkish officials on Wednesday for their part in the “unfair and unjust detention” of Pastor Andrew Brunson by the government of Turkey.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned the U.S. nothing will force Ankara to “step back” after President Donald Trump threatened “significant sanctions” against Turkey if a jailed U.S. pastor is not released.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu responded swiftly on Thursday to the threat of sanctions from President Donald Trump unless pastor Andrew Brunson is released. “We will never tolerate threats from anybody,” Cavusoglu said on Twitter.
Release Pastor Andrew Brunson or face large sanctions from the United States. That was the direct warning from President Donald J. Trump to Turkey and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan brought by Vice President Mike Pence to the State Department’s first Ministerial on Religious Freedom Thursday.
