Christianity: Trump threatens Turkey with sanctions for accused American pastors

Stand: 19:33 | Reading time: 3 minutes

U President Donald Trump has threatened Turkey with "global sanctions" for the fall of a pastor suspected of terrorism and espionage. "This innocent man of faith must be released immediately," Trump said Thursday on the Twitter short message service. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu categorically rejected the threat: Turkey would not be "dictated" by anyone.

The tense relationship between Washington and Ankara may well be the death of American Andrew Brunson, a ten-year-old prisoner. threatens to dramatically deteriorate further. Although this 50 year old man was unexpectedly released from a Turkish prison on Wednesday after almost two years in detention, he was placed under house arrest.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has already criticized this Wednesday as "insufficient". Trump has now yielded. He denounced that the pastor "suffers a lot". He also hailed Brunson as a "great Christian" and a "wonderful man".

Turkish authorities accuse the Protestant pastor of having worked for the movement of Islamist preacher Fethullah Gülen and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). He rejects all the allegations. A court in western Turkey Izmir had imposed an exit ban against Brunson in addition to house arrest. His trial is expected to continue on October 12, threatening him with a jail sentence of up to 35 years.

Vice President of the United States, Mike Pence, made it clear that his government would not be able to lift house arrest but also demanded the end of the exit ban. Turkey must send Brunson "home to America," he told Washington at an international conference of the US State Department on Religious Freedom. Pence also pointed out that there is "no credible evidence" against the pastor.

The Trump administration made the commitment to the rights of Christians around the world a priority for their foreign policy. Trump enjoys broad support among Christian-conservative voters.

Brunson and his wife operated a small church in Izmir for more than two decades. He was arrested in October 2016. Trump had already accused the Turkish government last week of detaining Brunson as a hostage.

Ankara again rejected it, pointing out that the Turkish judiciary was independent. "The rule of law applies to everyone, without exception," Foreign Minister Cavusoglu wrote in the Twitter short message service. His government "will never accept anyone's threats".

However, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had claimed that Brunson was himself a "hostage". Last year, he announced a release of Brunson, if the United States deliver Gülen. Erdogan regards the Islamic preacher as his sworn enemy and blames him for the coup attempt of July 2016.

The US refusal to extradite Gülen has a huge impact on relations with the country. Turkey. There are also other issues, including US military badistance to Syrian Kurds. Following Turkey's decision to buy Russian anti-aircraft missiles S-400, the US Congress also asked not to sell Ankara F35 fighter aircraft.