President Donald Trump told Bloomberg reporters Thursday that he was “very disappointed” in Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for not yet releasing American pastor Andrew Brunson from his prolonged imprisonment on false charges.
National Security Adviser John Bolton said on Tuesday that the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan “made a big mistake in not releasing Pastor Brunson.”
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu penned an opinion piece published by USA Today on Monday urging the Trump administration to lift sanctions on his country, insisting that Turkey deserves friendlier treatment from Washington because it pays more into NATO than other allies and hosts an American airbase.
The U.S. Embassy in Ankara has denied reports that American pastor Andrew Brunson will be released from house arrest and allowed to return back to the United States.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Turkey’s Minister of Justice Abdulhamit Gul and Minister of Interior Suleyman Soylu on Wednesday over their leading roles in the arrest and detention of American pastor Andrew Brunson.
A Turkish court on Tuesday ruled against American pastor Andrew Brunson’s appeal to be released from house arrest.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned the U.S. nothing will force Ankara to “step back” after President Donald Trump threatened “significant sanctions” against Turkey if a jailed U.S. pastor is not released.
Israel on Friday confirmed U.S. media reports that President Donald Trump asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a July 14 phone call to release Ebru Özkan, a Turkish woman accused of Hamas ties, in exchange for Turkey’s release of imprisoned American Pastor Andrew Brunson, who has been detained on terror and espionage charge. Turkey had denied these reports.
Turkish authorities announced on Wednesday that American Pastor Andrew Brunson, detained in 2016 for alleged ties to Islamist and Marxist terrorist groups, has been moved to house arrest to address health concerns.
Turkey announced on Thursday the official end of the three-month “state of emergency” that began in July 2016.
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry responded Thursday to President Donald Trump’s characterization on Twitter of the arrest of American Pastor Andrew Brunson as a “total disgrace,” insisting that his prolonged detention is a “legal process” necessary for the country’s national security.
The government of Turkey has yet to lift a state of emergency in place since a failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in 2016 despite promising to do so last Monday. The nation’s justice minister promised this Monday that the state of emergency would lift “within a few days.”
Tens of thousands of people rallied in Istanbul on Sunday night to mark the second anniversary of the failed military coup in July 2016.
The government of Turkey issued a blanket decree Sunday firing 18,632 state employees for unspecified “links with terror groups” and has increased the number of arrests for “insulting the president” ahead of the inauguration of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Monday.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım told the nation’s state-run Anadolu Agency on Thursday that the newly re-elected government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will end the national state of emergency, imposed after a failed coup in 2016, on Monday.
The first two F-35 Joint Strike Fighters for Turkey will emerge from Lockheed Martin headquarters in a ceremony on Thursday despite congressional action to block delivery of the advanced warplanes.
An American pastor facing 35 years in prison in Turkey for alleged ties to terrorist groups will not have a chance to leave prison until his next hearing on July 18, the court presiding over his case decided on Monday after dismissing all witnesses assembled to defend the pastor without listening to their testimony.
The resumption of the trail in a Turkish Court on Monday where an American pastor faces 35 years in prison for his alleged ties to terrorism ended after one day, with the judge dismissing all of the witness testimony in support of Andrew Brunson and left him behind bars until the next hearing in July.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Monday that Greece categorically rejects “unacceptable preconditions” from Turkey for the return of two Greek soldiers arrested on the Turkish side of the border in March.
A Turkish court ordered the continued detention of American Pastor Andrew Brunson on Monday, deeming him a flight risk and placing him in what advocates call an “extremely grim” prison on charges of having used his Christian sermons to promote Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen.
Andrew Brunson, a Protestant pastor who has led a mission and church in western Turkey for more than two decades, appeared in Turkish court on Monday facing terror-related charges.
A research assistant at a Turkish university killed four of his colleagues Thursday in a shooting spree reportedly preceded by over one hundred accusations of ties to anti-government Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s tour of Africa seems to have paid off, as the energy minister of Chad announced an agreement to bring Turkish investors into his country’s oil market on Thursday.
A senior Turkish government minister on Thursday suggested that the New York-based trial of Reza Zarrab, an Iranian-born Turkish business executive who was charged with violating United States sanctions on Iran, is the latest attempt by self-exiled Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen to harm Turkey’s government.
Ibrahim Karagül, the editor-in-chief of the stridently pro-government Turkish newspaper Yeni Şafak, accused the crown prince of UAE of being “an Israeli intelligence member” in a column this week, in which he warned the United States and Israel were attempting to destroy the Muslim world.
The Turkish government has repudiated as “utterly false, ludicrous, and groundless” allegations that it considered paying U.S. President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, retired. Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, and his son up to $15 million to kidnap United States-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen.
Turkey’s Culture Minister Numan Kurtulmus reported to his parliament on Tuesday that some 140,000 books have been removed from libraries for “including propaganda of FETO.” FETO stands for Fethullah Terrorist Organization, which is the Turkish government’s name for followers of exiled imam Fethullah Gulen.
American and Turkish diplomats scramble to restore non-immigrant visa services in both nations, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has taken an aggressive approach. He asserted Thursday that Turkey is “not a tribal state” and told the United States, “We do not need you.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan publicly and personally attacked U.S. Ambassador John Bass, Tuesday, calling an arrested Turkish worker at the American consulate in Istanbul a “spy.” Bass suspended non-immigrant visa services in Turkey on Monday in response to the arrest.
Turkey has frozen non-immigrant visa services for U.S. citizens, mirroring a U.S. announcement of the same policy Sunday in response to the arrest this week of a U.S. consulate worker in Istanbul for alleged ties to Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen.
ISTANBUL — The United States on Thursday said it was “deeply disturbed” over the arrest by Turkish authorities of a local staffer working at its consulate in Istanbul, saying the charges against him were baseless.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert rejected a proposal from Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan to trade wrongfully detained American pastor Andrew Brunson for Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen on Thursday, asserting the Trump administration was placing its efforts of bringing Brunson home.
Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered to free American pastor Andrew Brunson, imprisoned for allegedly spreading both pro-Kurdish propaganda and supporting Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen despite being a Christian, in exchange for Gulen himself on Thursday.
It’s the book “every American taxpayer should read,” says international lawyer Robert “Bob” Amsterdam about his newly-released publication “Empire of Deceit: An Investigation of the Gülen Charter School Network.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed to reporters this weekend that he expects to meet with his American counterpart Donald Trump in person during next week’s United Nation’s General Assembly.
Contents: Erdogan tells Turks living in Germany not to vote for Angela Merkel; Germany accuses Erdogan of extortion by ‘hostage diplomacy’
Turkey added another 24 arrests on Friday, to the 50,000 or so people detained after the July 2016 coup attempt. A total of 40 arrest warrants were written based on the lengthy investigation of an alleged plot by followers of exiled imam Fethullah Gulen to infiltrate the police force.
Contents: Relations between Germany and Turkey spiral into crisis; Turkey commemorates first anniversary of attempted coup
Turkish court ordered the formal arrest of a film producer after he made a controversial movie showing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held at gunpoint in a bloody coup d’etat, reports said Wednesday.
The administration of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has long portrayed former imam Fethullah Gulen as the sinister mastermind who orchestrated last year’s failed coup attempt from his home in Pennsylvania. Turkey demanded Gulen’s extradition from both the Obama and Trump administrations and denounced their failure to hand him over as outrageous.
