Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to impose sanctions on two members of President Trump’s Cabinet as part of an ongoing feud over the detention of an American pastor.
“The decision to freeze assets of Turkish justice, interior ministers in the U.S. is illogical,” Erdogan said Saturday, per the Daily Sabah. “Turkey will also freeze all assets of the U.S. justice and interior ministers, if they have any.”
The Treasury Department blacklisted Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu and Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul last Wednesday in an attempt to pressure Turkey to release North Carolina missionary Andrew Brunson. The U.S. and Turkish Cabinets don’t have the same structure, but Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen seem most analogous, as Turkey’s interior ministry handles domestic security.
“Turkey cannot be disciplined with such actions,” Erdogan added.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo didn’t rule out the possibility of additional sanctions if Brunson is not released, citing his latest conversation with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.
“I am hopeful that in the coming days we will see [Brunson and other Americans released], and I don’t want to predict in the future what we might or might do to further enhance the likelihood that that occur,” he told reporters while traveling Saturday in Singapore. “We had a good conversation. I’m very hopeful that we will make progress along that in the days and weeks ahead.”
Brunson was arrested in 2016 and accused of complicity in a failed coup against the Turkish government. The charges are baseless, according to U.S. officials. “Pastor Brunson’s unjust detention and continued prosecution by Turkish officials is simply unacceptable,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said when announcing the sanctions.
Turkish authorities maintain that Brunson’s case must work its way through the courts; but Erdogan, previously, has suggested that Brunson might be a bargaining chip to try to induce the U.S. to extradite the Pennsylvania-based cleric whom he regards as the ringleader of the 2015 coup attempt.
“‘Give us the pastor back’, they say. You have one pastor as well. Give him [Gulen] to us,” Erdogan said last year, per Reuters. “Then we will try him [Brunson] and give him to you … The [pastor] we have is on trial. Yours is not — he is living in Pennsylvania. You can give him easily. You can give him right away.”
