By Dan Calabrese ——Bio and Archives--April 17, 2018
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The only difference between Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Ruhollah Khomeini is the number of American hostages each Islamic tyrant is responsible for holding. Khomeini had more hostages, but Erdoğan’s kidnapping of Pastor Andrew Brunson is every bit as egregious, and requires just as harsh a penalty from the United States.
Then again, Iran never really did pay a price for what it did. Hopefully the same won’t be true for the present regime in Turkey, and that includes that absolute imperative that we not give them what they want in exchange for Brunson, whose trial started yesterday in Ankara:Andrew Brunson, a Christian pastor from North Carolina who has lived in Turkey for more than two decades, was indicted on charges of helping a group accused of orchestrating the failed 2016 coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He faces up to 35 years in prison. “I’ve never done something against Turkey. I love Turkey. I’ve been praying for Turkey for 25 years. I want truth to come out,” Brunson told the court in the western Turkish town of Aliaga on Monday. Brunson has been the pastor of Izmir Resurrection church, serving a small Protestant congregation in Turkey’s third-largest city. “I do not accept the charges mentioned in the indictment. I was never involved in any illegal activities,” said Brunson, wearing a white shirt and black suit and making his defence in Turkish. His wife was in the courtroom, as were the North Carolina senator Thom Tillis and the US envoy for religious freedom, Sam Brownback. But the judge ruled that Brunson had to stay in jail, pending another hearing on 7 May. Brunson’s trial is one of several legal cases straining US-Turkish relations. The two countries are also at odds over US support for a Kurdish militia in northern Syriathat Turkey considers a terrorist organisation.
Washington has called for Brunson’s release while Erdoğan suggested last year his fate could be linked to that of the US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, whose extradition Ankara has repeatedly sought to face charges over the coup attempt. Gülen denies any association with the failed coup. Tens of thousands of Turks have been arrested or lost their jobs over alleged connections with the effort. “The United States cares deeply about our relationship with Turkey,” Brownback told reporters during a recess at the trial. “That relationship is going to have difficulty moving forward as long as Andrew Brunson is incarcerated.”Brunson has done nothing wrong and the Turkish regime knows it. But Christians who operate openly in Turkey are at serious risk of arrest and persecution by the Erdoğan regime, especially when Erdoğan is obsessed with apprehending Fethullah Gülen, which is part of his larger obsession with the attempted coup for which he blames Gülen as one of the organizers. The Trump Administration, as it should, is trying hard to get Brunson released. But it has shown no willingness to extradite Gülen in exchange, nor should it. What the U.S. needs to do to Turkey now is make the regime feel some serious pain for its treatment of Andrew Brunson. How to do that? U.S. Sen. James Lankford (R-Oklahoma) suggests using the Global Magnitsky Act to sanction Turkish officials directly:
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The White House has the tools necessary to institute a range of targeted sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Act, but Congress is more than willing to provide additional incentives if needed. A State Department spending bill, already approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee and expected to pass in the coming weeks, requires the secretary of state to deny entry to the U.S. to Turkish officials “knowingly responsible for the wrongful or unlawful prolonged detention of citizens or nationals of the United States.” The findings of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom provide further support for a reassessment of the U.S.-Turkey relationship. The commission’s reports for the past several years have listed Turkey as a Tier 2 country of concern, meaning violations of religious freedom met “at least one of the elements of the ‘systematic, ongoing, and egregious’ ” standard under the International Religious Freedom Act. The government’s oppression of religious minorities is consistent with the authoritarian turn exhibited by its pattern of arbitrary arrests and detentions since 2016.I’m not sure that’s enough, but it’s a start and it’s something the president already has the authority to do. He should do it today. It wasn’t that long ago that Turkey was a very solid U.S. ally, arguably our best in the Middle East apart from Israel. The Erdoğan presidency has sadly changed that, as he has been more interested in pandering to radical Islamic factions than in building constructive relations with the west. The White House should be exploring every option it has to hurt Erdoğan and his government – badly – as the necessary price for this entire direction. But the first order of business has to be getting Andrew Brunson home, and not to let up the pain even one bit on Erdoğan until that happens.
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Dan Calabrese’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain
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