Brunson affair taking economic toll on Turkey
A Turkish delegation has been dispatched to Washington to try to resolve the crisis swirling around the detention of American pastor Andrew Brunson in Izmir.
A Turkish delegation of senior diplomats, legal experts and Treasury officials is expected to arrive in Washington in a bid to defuse the ongoing crisis between the NATO allies sparked by the continued detention of North Carolina evangelical pastor Andrew Brunson.
The delegation, led by newly appointed Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Unal, was scheduled to land Aug. 7. The State Department meanwhile confirmed that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had today spoken by phone with his Turkish counterpart, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, but there was no readout of the conversation.
Amid mounting panic about the effects of the row on Turkey’s fragile economy, the Turkish lira dropped by a record 5% against the US dollar Aug. 6. Mahir Unal, a spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Part, played down the meltdown, insisting that it stemmed from broader global economic instability.
“Turkey’s economy is extremely strong,” Unal asserted. “Its financial sector, its banking sector, are extremely strong. Citizens, rest assured, our government is solving the problem.”
