WASHINGTON, ISTANBUL: US President Donald Trump thanked Turkey on
Saturday for freeing American pastor Andrew Brunson after two years in
custody and said it would help improve strained relations, but Trump
denied cutting a deal for Brunson’s release.
“I don’t make deals for hostages. There was, however, great appreciation
on behalf of the United States, which will lead to good, perhaps great,
relations between the United States & Turkey!” Trump wrote in a
tweet on Saturday morning.
Brunson, who had been under house arrest since July, was flown out of Turkey on Friday.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday told Donald Trump that the
court’s decision to free an American pastor was taken “independently,”
after the US president thanked the Turkish strongman for his efforts in
securing the release.
“Mr. President @realDonaldTrump, in line with what I have always said,
the Turkish judicial decision was taken independently,” Erdogan wrote on
his official Twitter account.
Relations between the two NATO allies have been strained by US support
for Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, Turkey’s plans to buy a Russian
missile defense system, and the US jailing of an executive at a Turkish
state bank in an Iran sanctions-busting case.
The dispute over Brunson brought new tension to the relationship. Trump
authorized a doubling of duties on aluminum and steel imported from
Turkey in August, and Turkey retaliated by increasing tariffs on US
cars, alcohol and tobacco imports.
Turkey is in a financial crisis and its lira currency has plunged
against the dollar this year on concerns over President Tayyip Erdogan’s
grip on monetary policy and the diplomatic dispute between Ankara and
Washington.
Trump specifically thanked Erdogan in his tweet on Saturday.
Brunson was accused of links to Kurdish militants and supporters of
Fethullah Gulen, the cleric blamed by Turkey’s government for a coup
attempt in 2016. Brunson, who lived in Turkey for more than 20 years,
denied the accusations and Washington had demanded his immediate
release.
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