President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned the US in comments published Sunday that sanctions would not force Ankara to \u201cstep back\u201d after Donald Trump threatened to punish Turkey if a US pastor was not freed.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou cannot make Turkey take a step back with sanctions,\u201d Erdogan said in his first comments since relations soured after Trump threatened the measures on Thursday if Pastor Andrew Brunson was not released.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe US should not forget that it could lose a strong and sincere partner like Turkey if it does not change its attitude,\u201d he was quoted as saying by Hurriyet daily.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe change of attitude is Trump\u2019s problem, not mine,\u201d he told journalists during a visit to South Africa, calling the US threats \u201cpsychological warfare\u201d.<\/p>\n
Relations between the NATO allies have worsened over the jailing of Brunson, who ran a Protestant church in the Aegean city of Izmir.<\/p>\n
He was held in a Turkish jail for almost two years on terror charges but was placed under house arrest on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Trump on Thursday hit back at the move, calling for his immediate release and warning that the US would impose \u201clarge sanctions on Turkey for their long time detainment\u201d of Brunson.<\/p>\n
Ties had already been strained over multiple issues including Washington\u2019s support of a Syrian Kurdish militia which Turkey views as a terrorist group and the failure to extradite the Pennsylvania-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen.<\/p>\n
Erdogan in September suggested Turkey could free Brunson if the US handed over Gulen \u2014 an offer brushed off by Washington.<\/p>\n
No \u2018bargaining chip\u2019<\/p>\n
Ankara accuses Gulen of ordering the 2016 failed overthrow of Erdogan, a claim he strongly denies.<\/p>\n
The Washington Post on Friday reported a deal between Ankara and Washington was made to secure the release of a Turkish woman imprisoned in Israel in exchange for the freedom of Brunson.<\/p>\n
Ebru Ozkan, 27, had been held for over a month by Israel on charges of passing hundreds of dollars to a \u201cterrorist\u201d group, but she returned to Turkey on July 16.<\/p>\n
The newspaper said the agreement was \u201cpersonally sealed\u201d by Trump but fell apart when Brunson was transferred to house arrest.<\/p>\n
Erdogan addressed the claims, stressing that Turkey had \u201cnever made Pastor Brunson a bargaining chip.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, he said Ankara had asked for Washington\u2019s help in securing Ozkan\u2019s return home.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we didn\u2019t say: \u2018In return for this, we will give you Brunson\u2019. Nothing like this was discussed,\u201d Erdogan insisted.<\/p>\n
Brunson risks up to 35 years in jail if found guilty of charges of carrying out activities on behalf of two groups deemed by Turkey to be terror organisations \u2014 the Gulen movement and the Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party (PKK).<\/p>\n
Brunson rejects the accusations while US officials have repeatedly insisted the pastor is innocent.<\/p>\n
International arbitration<\/p>\n
Temperatures were further raised when the US threatened in June to block the delivery of F-35 stealth jets to Turkey if Ankara buys Russia\u2019s S-400 air defence system.<\/p>\n
But Erdogan suggested Turkey would not sit idly by if this happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe told (the US): \u2018If you don\u2019t give them, there is something called international arbitration. We will seek international arbitration\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Another source of tension is the prison sentence of 32 months for deputy director general of Turkish lender Halkbank Mehmet Hakan Atilla convicted of plotting to help Iran evade US sanctions on billions of dollars of Iranian oil proceeds.<\/p>\n
Turkish officials insist Atilla is innocent but Halkbank still faces a penalty from the US Treasury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned the US in comments published Sunday that sanctions would not force Ankara to \u201cstep back\u201d after Donald Trump threatened to punish Turkey if a US pastor was not freed. \u201cYou cannot make Turkey take a step back with sanctions,\u201d Erdogan said in his first comments since relations soured after Trump […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":101230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7863],"tags":[25396,40604,25395,8596],"class_list":["post-101229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-section","tag-recep-tayyip-erdogan","tag-sanctions-threat","tag-turkey","tag-us"],"yoast_head":"\n