US Treasury Secretary Hints at More Sanctions for Turkey
The two countries are at odds over the fate of an American pastor under arrest
A Turkish Minister said Friday that his country will respond if the United States imposes new sanctions over the continued detention of a U.S. pastor. “We’ve already responded based on the World Trade Organization rules and will continue to do so,” Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan was quoted as saying by the state-run Anadolu news agency. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday the U.S. was ready to impose more sanctions on Turkey if detained American pastor Andrew Brunson was not released from house arrest. Mnuchin made the statement during a Cabinet meeting with the president attended by journalists. “We have put sanctions on several of their Cabinet members,” Mnuchin said. He added, “We have more that we are planning to do if they don’t release him quickly.” Earlier this month, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Turkey’s ministers of Justice and Interior in response to Brunson’s detention. The pastor has lived in Turkey for 20 years and heads an evangelical congregation of about two dozen people in the port city of Izmir. Turkey accuses Brunson of being a supporter of Fethullah Gullen, who is accused of being the mastermind behind a coup attempt in 2016, and of espionage. Brunson was imprisoned from October 2016 to his July 2018 release under house arrest pending his trial. On Wednesday, Turkey announced tariff hikes on several U.S. goods, including imports of vehicles, alcohol, coal, rice and cosmetics. Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said on Twitter the increases were being done “within the framework of the principle of reciprocity in retaliation for the conscious economic attacks by the United States.” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused the United States of waging a targeted economic war on his country, and on Tuesday he proposed a boycott of U.S. electronic goods. Asked how U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration would react to any such Turkish boycott, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders replied Tuesday, “I certainly don’t have a policy announcement on that at this point.” The chargé d’affaires at the U.S. embassy in Turkey, Jeffrey Hovenier, visited Brunson on Tuesday and called for his case, and those of others detained in Turkey, to be resolved “without delay” and in a “fair and transparent manner.” National Security Adviser John Bolton met at the White House on Monday with Turkish ambassador Serdar Kilic, but the discussion reportedly did not result in any substantive progress. Trump, who has called Brunson’s detention a “total disgrace,” last Friday doubled tariffs on imports of Turkish steel and aluminum in order to increase pressure on Erdogan. The escalating dispute between the two countries has exacerbated Turkey’s economic crisis, pushing the lira to record lows. The Turkish currency has lost about 40 percent of its value this year against the U.S. dollar. Erdogan has called on Turks to exchange their dollars for lira in order to shore up the domestic currency.