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Donald Trump announced Thursday "significant sanctions" against Turkey if it does not release "immediately" an American pastor tried for terrorism, at the risk of exacerbating already tense relations with Ankara, which rejected threats " Unacceptable. "
For the President of the United States, Pastor Andrew Brunson," a formidable Christian and family man, "" suffers a lot ". "This innocent man of faith must be released immediately," he claimed on Twitter after already denouncing last week a "total shame" when a Turkish court decided to keep him in custody during his trial.
On Wednesday, another court finally decided to put under house arrest this man who had been imprisoned since October 2016 in Turkey.
It's "a welcome first step, but it's not enough, "Mike Pence said Thursday at an international meeting in Washington to" promote religious freedom "in the world. According to the US Vice President, "there is no credible evidence against him."
He then directly addressed the Turkish Head of State Recep Tayyip Erdogan: "Free Pastor Andrew Brunson or be ready to pay the consequences ". "If Turkey does not take immediate steps to free this man of innocent faith and send him home to America, the United States will impose significant sanctions against Turkey until his release," he said.
– Ankara rejects American "order" –
The arrest of the pastor is one of many cases that poison relations between Ankara and Washington, allies within NATO, but who avoided just a risk of confrontation at the beginning of the year in Syria. And the threat of sanctions has once again raised tension a notch.
The US administration "must understand that it can not achieve the desired result by threatening Turkey," warned the Turkish Presidency. "No one can give orders to Turkey, we will never tolerate anyone's threats," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu, who spoke on the phone with his US counterpart, said. Mike Pompeo
Pastor Brunson, who faces up to 35 years in prison, is accused by the Turkish authorities of terrorism and espionage on behalf of two organizations that they regard as their pet peeves. Preacher Fethullah Gülen to whom Ankara accuses, despite his denials, the failed coup of July 2016, but also the Kurdish separatists of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Turkey claims for its part the extradition of Fethullah Gülen, installed in the United States, and in fact regularly a condition for the repatriation of Andrew Brunson, but the US administration officially refuses to tie the two cases.
Mike Pence told the daughter of Pastor, present at the Thursday meeting at the US State Department: "I promise you … that President Trump and I will continue to fight for the complete liberation of your father".
The United States has erected its history as a symbol of religious persecution in the world, on the occasion of this very first ministerial meeting on freedom of religion, which the Turkish government did not take part in.
Often accused of Trump has made this cause a priority.
"83% of the world's population lives in countries where religious freedom is threatened or banned altogether ", lamented the US vice president. He pinpointed several countries that were not present in Washington, including Iran, China and North Korea – whose "persecution of Christians is unparalleled on the planet," he said. he said.
"In Nicaragua, the government of Daniel Ortega practically leads a war against the Catholic Church", he also attacked, before announcing the creation of an International Fund for the Freedom of religion
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday that the meeting would be annual.
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