Things have been heating up between Ankara and Washington for quite some time, and somehow the reason behind it is the Pastor Andrew Brunson, who is accused as one of the facilitators of the coup attempt against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, back in 2016. The North Carolina native pastor has been living in Turkey for more than two decades, and since the coup he is facing the house arrest. Up the latest, US has rejected Turkey’s offer of releasing the US native pastor in exchange for forgiveness of billion dollars of fine on the Turkish bank.
The senior administration of White House seems asserting the release of the pastor in the first move and then other matters to be discussed next onwards, according to the sources. The US rejection of this offer could lead to more sanctions on Turkey. This ongoing feud has terribly hammered the Turkish Lira as the trade row has also kicked off between both the countries.
Talking about the Turkish national bank, Halkbank it has been fined of billion dollars by the US government over helping Iran evade sanctions. Erdogan, who seemed quite optimistic over stabilizing Lira following trade row now seems giving up all with offer of pastor’s release and asking for the removal of sanction on the Turkish banks in exchange.
A straight ‘No’ from Washington before pastor’s release would have left Turkey clueless over the ongoing situation.
After the refusal of house arrest and traveling abroad of the pastor, Trump castigated Turkey via Twitter by saying: “Turkey has taken advantage of the United States for many years. They are now holding our wonderful Christian Pastor, who I must now ask to represent our Country as a great patriot hostage. We will pay nothing for the release of an innocent man, but we are cutting back on Turkey!”