To be frank, Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan has never truly been an opponent to abolishing the capital punishment from Turkish legislation. It is true that the death penalty was abolished in 2004 during the Justice and Development Party’s (AK Parti) rule when he was prime minister.
In a speech he delivered before attending an event of the women’s organization of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Parti) on Aug. 4, Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan said: “From now there will be no fight for freedom of faith, freedom of thought, and freedom of opinion. Everyone will be free in their own faith, be free to live accordingly. In the [fields of] opinions and thought, [everyone] will say whatever he [or she] believes in. There will be no debate on whether [any woman’s] head is covered or not.”
Two days after the U.S. Treasury put Turkish Justice Minister Abdülhamit Gül and Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu on its sanctions list over the continued arrest of American evangelical pastor Andrew Brunson, the top diplomats of the two countries met to seek an acceptable exit from the situation.
The U.S. Treasury’s move to put Turkish Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gül and Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu on its sanctions list on Aug. 1, saying that it was because of their role in the arrest of American evangelical pastor Andrew Brunson, caused outrage in Turkey. The Turkish Foreign Ministry strongly condemned it, asking for its cancellation while also vowing to take reciprocal action. Four parties in the Turkish Parliament released a joint declaration against the American move. The Turkish-American Business Council was the first institution to protest the move as “unacceptable” and called on the two sides’ presidents, Donald Trump and Tayyip Erdoğan, to give diplomacy a chance in order to put the two allies’ relations back on track.
I don’t want to say problems with the United States are not serious. They are serious, but they are not structural problems. Political crises can be solved easily when you change the parameters. Turkey and the U.S. have had crises before, as serious as the current one, but they were eventually solved.
The statement by Anatoly Viktorov, the Russian Ambassador to Tel Aviv, came at a time when developments regarding the Syrian war have heated up. He said Russia would not be able to force Iran to pull its forces out of Syria. Instantly, there were comments on social media, which said under the circumstances, Israel could take care of the problem by its own means without Russia’s help. That may be easier said than done.
In the political domain, the crisis with the United States and the economic outlook are issues dominating Turkey. But in the public domain, there are a number of heated issues dominant among the general public.
If you rely on American media stories about the Brunson row between the United States and Turkey, based on information given by unnamed officials, this was the story behind it: The U.S. President Donald Trump and the Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan made a deal during their conversation on July 11 in Brussels on the margin of the NATO Summit over the release of the evangelical pastor Andrew Brunson, who has been under arrest in Turkey for nearly 20 months.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry on July 27 denied there was a bargain between Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan and U.S. President Donald Trump over the release of American pastor Andrew Brunson, under arrest in Turkey, and the release of a Turkish woman named Ebru Özkan, who was arrested in Israel, as reported by Reuters, citing Israeli official sources.
