US Using Pastor Issue as Pretext to Impose Sanctions

According to Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the case of American pastor Andrew Brunson is just a pretext to implement a new set of sanctions on Turkey, Sputnik reported.

He also noted that Ankara won't give up on free market rules, stressing that Washington has lost credibility by engaging in trade wars with the world.

“The US has embarked on a false path of solving political problems not through negotiations, but through the language of blackmail and threats,” Erdogan told the Turkish parliament on Monday, according to RT.

He said that Washington has “lost its credibility engaging in a trade war with the world” after Turkey, Russia, China, Iran and other countries were recently hit by American sanctions.

The US previously imposed sanctions against Turkish Minister of Justice Abdulhamit Gul and Minister of Interior Suleyman Soylu over the Brunson case, while also doubling steel and aluminum tariffs on Turkey, up to 50 and 20 percent, respectively.

Relations between the two countries started to deteriorate after Brunson was jailed in 2016 for his alleged ties to the movement founded by Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, which is considered a terrorist organization by Ankara. Turkey has accused Gulen and his movement of orchestrating the failed 2016 military coup.

The missionary was later placed under house arrest, as a court refused to release Brunson and let him leave the country.

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