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Donald Trump Thursday threatened Turkey with "significant sanctions" if it does not does not release "immediately" an American pastor tried for terrorism and erected by Washington as a symbol of religious persecution in the world, at the risk of exacerbating relations already strained with Ankara.
"No one can give order to Turkey We will never tolerate the threats of anyone, "Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu immediately responded.
For the President of the United States, Pastor Andrew Brunson," a great Christian and a father "," suffer 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 trick court decided to keep him in custody during his trial, in progress since the spring.
On Wednesday, another court finally decided to put under house arrest this man who had been incarcerated since October 2016 in Turkey.
It is "a welcome first step but it is not enough" said Thursday the US vice president at a ministerial meeting in Washington to "promote freedom of religion." According to Mike Pence, "there is no credible evidence against him."
Mike Pence then directly addressed Turkish Head of State Recep Tayyip Erdogan: "Release Pastor Andrew Brunson or be ready to 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.
– Ortega in "war" against the Church –
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.
This religious, who faces up to 35 years in prison, is accused by the Turkish authorities of terrorism and espionage on behalf of two organizations they Their pranks include the network of preacher Fethullah Gülen, 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 côt the extradition of Fethullah Gülen, who lives in the United States, and makes it a regular condition for the repatriation of Andrew Brunson, but the US administration officially refuses to bind the two cases.
Mike Pence told the girl of the pastor, present at the meeting of Thursday at the US State Department unlike the Turkish government: "I promise (…) that President Trump and I will continue to fight for the complete release of your father"
The United States has therefore decided to make its history a symbol of religious persecution around the world at this first-ever international ministerial meeting on freedom of religion, including US chief of diplomacy Mike Pompeo announced Thursday that it would be annual now.
Often accused of being behind in the defense of human rights, the Trump administration has made this cause a priority
"83% of the world's population lives in countries where religious freedom is threatened or banned altogether," said the US Vice President. He pinned several countries that were not present in Washington, including Iran, China or North Korea – whose "persecution of Christians is unparalleled on the planet," he said. he says.
"In Nicaragua, the government of Daniel Ortega practically leads a war against the Catholic Church", he also attacked.
Mike Pence also regretted that in European democracies like the France, "the same French Jews who were forced by the Nazis to wear identifiable clothing are now urged by their democratic leaders" to "not wear the yarmulke in public" to escape "attacks" and anti-Semitism. [19659003HeannouncedthecreationofanInternationalFundforReligiousFreedom
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