Missionary still in the lions’ den
He came to Turkey to tell people about Jesus, he said, but was charged with crimes committed on behalf of terrorist groups. Ezgi Erkoyun and Humeyra Pamuk, in Izmir, sum up the situation of Andrew Brunson.
WHEN Andrew Brunson saw a police summons on his door in late summer 2016, the US evangelical pastor thought it was a routine appointment to sort out his residency papers in Turkey, his home for nearly a quarter of a century.
He went to the police station on October 7, 2016 and was detained and later charged with involvement in a coup attempt. He is still in detention and is now at the centre of a diplomatic row that has fuelled Turkey’s most serious currency crisis for almost two decades.
‘‘Obviously, he was more than surprised’’ to be detained, Brunson’s lawyer, Ismail Cem Halavurt, told Reuters in a recent interview.
Brunson lived and preached in Izmir, a city on Turkey’s Aegean coast near some of the sites of Christianity’s first communities. At his first hearing in April, attended by Reuters, he said he was ‘‘raising disciples for Jesus’’ in a country he deeply loved.
In July, after nearly two years in prison, he was moved to house arrest. A court on August 17 rejected an appeal to release him, saying evidence was still being collected and he posed a flight risk.
US President Donald Trump has demanded Brunson’s unconditional release and has slapped sanctions and tariffs on Turkey that have helped push the lira to record lows.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has linked Brunson’s release to the fate of Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish Muslim cleric living in the United States whom he blames for the July 2016 coup attempt. Erdogan has raised tariffs on US cars, alcohol and tobacco in a titfortat response.
‘‘You have one pastor as well. Give him [Gulen] to us . . . Then we will try him [Brunson] and give him to you,’’ Erdogan said to police officers in Ankara last September. It is a suggestion Washington has dismissed.
The breakdown in relations between the two Nato allies has thrust Brunson’s case to international prominence. Turkish courts have rejected several appeals for Brunson to be freed and allowed to leave Turkey. A senior Turkish official, asked about the case, said the judiciary was independent and the verdict was up to the courts.
Brunson was formally arrested on December 9, 2016, charged with crimes committed on behalf of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a militant group, and on behalf of Gulen’s network. Ankara designates both as terrorist groups. He was also charged with disclosing state information ‘‘for political or military espionage’’.
He has denied all the charges.
Secret witnesses
The accusations centre around support for separatist Kurds and connections with alleged coup plotters.
‘‘I came to Turkey in 1993 to tell people about Jesus,’’ he told the judge in fluent Turkish at his first hearing in April. ‘‘I’ve never done something secretive in my time in Turkey. The Government monitored us all the time but I’ve never done anything against Turkey.’’
The judge told Brunson he was not on trial for carrying out missionary activities but to face the charges against him.
Prosecutors questioned why he travelled hundreds of miles from his church on Turkey’s western coast to the mainly Kurdish southeast interior, where the PKK is active.
Messages on his phones, travel details, testimony from his congregation and what the indictment refers to as three secret witnesses, codenamed ‘‘Prayer’’, ‘‘Fire’’ and ‘‘Meteor’’, were cited in evidence against him.
The indictment cites GPS data showing trips to Suruc, near the Syrian border, and the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, as well as a meeting in 2010 with a man described by one of the secret witnesses as a US special forces soldier.
Brunson said his trips to Kurdish areas were to help refugees who had escaped war in neighbouring Syria.
‘‘I do not accept that I acted in accordance with PKK targets . . . We wanted to convert Syrian refugees coming to Izmir. I do not differentiate between their ethnic identities,’’ he said.
‘‘Prayer’’ was quoted in the indictment as saying Brunson was linked to suspected members of Gulen’s network.
Halavurt said the witness had failed to offer concrete evidence of this. The prosecution said Brunson’s phone records and witness testimony provided it.
Turkey has detained 160,000 people since the abortive putsch, almost half of them formally charged and kept in jail during their trials.
Brunson was not in the country at the time of the coup attempt but returned soon afterwards, his lawyer said. In a text message cited in the indictment, he said the coup attempt ‘‘was a shock’’.
‘‘We were waiting for some events that would shake the Turks — preparing the conditions for Jesus’ return . . . I think the situation is going to get worse. We’ll win in the end,’’ said the message, which was dated July 21, 2016 and addressed to a fellow pastor. Brunson did not deny sending it but said it had been misunderstood.
‘We didn’t know him’
In the Alsancak district of Izmir where Brunson lived, a pharmacy owner described him and his wife as ‘‘quiet people’’.
The owner of a boutique two streets from his home said she never met him.
‘‘I know everyone in this neighbourhood and I had no idea these people lived here,’’ she said.
Turkey’s Government says it was similarly unaware of Brunson until his case was raised by the US consulate.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu denied this month that Brunson had been detained for use as a political pawn.
‘‘What possible benefit could we get from this person,’’ he said at a meeting of Turkey’s ruling party.
The senior Turkish official said negotiations had been held with US counterparts ‘‘in different formats’’ but declined to comment further.
At a Nato summit in Brussels last month, Trump and Erdogan discussed Brunson. Trump thought they had agreed a deal to release the US pastor, US sources said. Erdogan had sought US help to persuade Israeli authorities to release a Turkish woman being held in Israel and, in exchange, Ankara would release Brunson.
Israel deported the detainee on July 15 and later confirmed Trump had requested her release. Ankara has denied agreeing to free Brunson in return.
Brunson’s transfer to house arrest 10 days later was deemed too little, too late by Washington and a phone call between the two leaders on July 26 ‘‘did not go well’’, the US official said.
Trump has ruled out making any concessions to Turkey to gain Brunson’s freedom.
‘‘I think it’s very sad what Turkey is doing,’’ he said last week. ‘‘I think they’re making a terrible mistake. There will be no concessions.’’
Brunson’s next court hearing is scheduled for October.