[ad_1]
"The United States will impose heavy sanctions on Turkey for their long-term detention of Pastor Andrew Brunson, a great Christian, a family man and a wonderful human being," Trump said. . "This innocent man of faith should be released immediately!"
Brunson, evangelical Presbyterian pastor of North Carolina, was arrested in 2016 during a government crackdown on journalists, academics, and Christian minorities, following an attempted coup d'etat. He was released under house arrest Wednesday and was ordered to wear an electronic surveillance device.
Before Trump's tweet, Pence made a similar threat. "If Turkey does not take immediate steps to free this man of faith and send him back to America," he told a ministerial conference on religious freedom in the State Department, the United States United will impose significant sanctions on pastor Andrew Brunson. is free. "
" While he's out of jail, he's still not free, "Pence said in his speech.
" And to President Erdogan and the Turkish government, I'm not free. have a message on behalf of the President of the United States of America, "he continued." Release Pastor Andrew Brunson now or be prepared to face the consequences. "
L & # 39; Trump's administration has long stressed Brunson's case, raising it with Turkish officials and in statements in the media.But Thursday's threat of sanctions marks a distinct escalation in rhetoric that coincides with a broader cooling of the Turkish-American relationship.
Trump and Pence have had several conversations with Turkish government officials regarding the American pastor detained in recent weeks, an administration official told CNN.
Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan specifically spoke about the issue on appeal in mid-June. However, the White House has not released reading of the call.
Turkey was not the only country to face acute criticism in Pence's remarks. The Vice President also reprimanded the governments of North Korea, China, Russia, Nicaragua, and Iran over the treatment of religious communities in their respective countries
. Last month's summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Pence insisted, "one can not escape the fact that North Korean leaders have demanded deprivation and cruelty unparalleled on their people for decades."
Public executions, killings and even forced abortions and forced labor on an industrial scale, have been the means by which this regime has maintained its power for more than 70 years, "Pence said. Today, as we meet at this ministerial meeting, 130,000 North Koreans are jailed for life in labor camps that are bound to be incredibly brutal. "
