President Donald Trump tweeted on Thursday that the United States would “impose large sanctions” against Turkey for its imprisonment of Christian pastor Andrew Brunson. Vice President Mike Pence made a similar announcement at a religious freedom event earlier in the day.
Brunson, 50, is a Presbyterian pastor who preached in a Turkish church for 23 years. After a failed coup in 2016, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey began rounding up and imprisoning people he saw as being involved in that takeover attempt.
Brunson was arrested during this time on what his supporters say are fabricated charges. The Turkish government accused him of not only being involved in the coup, but of colluding with Kurdish militants. He would spend the next two years in prison.
While the Kurds have proven themselves to be invaluable allies to the United States in the fight against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, the U.S. considers the PKK, a Kurdish independence movement inside Turkey, as a terrorist organization for its violent tactics.
The Turkish government, however, does not make a distinction between the PKK and other Kurdish groups, and views the entire ethnicity as a terrorist outfit.
On Wednesday, Brunson was released from prison and is now being held under house arrest. The Turkish government has not dropped the charges, and he still faces the possibility of spending up to 35 years in prison.
Trump tweeted that Turkey would face “large” sanctions for its treatment of Brunson, whom he described as “a great Christian, family man and wonderful human being.”
The United States will impose large sanctions on Turkey for their long time detainment of Pastor Andrew Brunson, a great Christian, family man and wonderful human being. He is suffering greatly. This innocent man of faith should be released immediately!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2018
At a State Department-hosted religious freedom event, Pence declared:
To President Erdogan and the Turkish government, I have a message on behalf of the president of the United States of America: release Pastor Andrew Brunson now or be prepared to face the consequences
