The American Charge d’Affaires in Ankara said in late June that Turkey’s continued detention of Pastor Andrew Brunson on spying and terrorism-related charges was impeding US-Turkish relations.
Philip Kosnett said there is a ‘strong sense of unity in Congress between Republicans and Democrats’ on the need for Brunson to be released. He continued that there is: ‘A similar sense of unity between Congress and the administration that, in order for the relationship between Turkey and the US to progress, we need to resolve that status not only for Brunson but also for other American citizens and local Turkish employees of US missions who we feel are detained unjustly under the state of emergency’.
Third hearing
A secret visit by a cross-party group had as their main aim seeing Brunson and appealing on his behalf to President Erdogan of Turkey. As en goes to press, Brunson’s third hearing is set for 18 July. The prosecutors are looking for a 35-year sentence.
In late June, Erdogan won the election to President for a further five years. He secured sweeping new powers granted in a narrowly-won referendum in 2017, denounced by his critics as a blatant power grab. Under the new system, the office of Prime Minister was abolished, Parliament’s powers curtailed, and the President was accorded wide-ranging executive authority making him head of the legislature, the executive and the judiciary.
Conceding defeat, Ince, his principal challenger, warned that the constitutional changes represented a threat to the country’s democracy.
