Did Erdoğan Cheat Trump On A Prisoner Swap Deal Involving Israel?

When the U.S. President Trump met his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently at a NATO meeting, they had a secret and serious issue that led to an agreement: 

In exchange for the release of American evangelist pastor Andrew Brunson, held in Turkish prison for two years, Trump would secure the the release of a Turkish woman, Ebru Özkan, arrested in Israel for smuggling goods to the Palestinian movement Hamas earlier this month.

Trump thought he had a deal. The Brunson case had developed into a fierce campaign among evangelists across the U.S.A. and inside the Congress.

The meeting ended with smiles and a fist-bump. 

But after Israel allowed Özkan to go home to Turkey, a Turkish court ruled that Brunson should remain under house arrest and not be able to leave the country.

Fury in Washington ensued. 

The Washington Post reports on the back-story behind the angry insistence of Trump and Vice President Mike Pence on sanctioning Turkey on Thursday night.

The Turks, according to a Trump adviser, had cheated by “upping the ante” for Brunson. While the exact Turkish terms are unknown, Ankara has a long list of complaints, including the U.S. failure to extradite the Turkish citizen it considers responsible for a failed 2016 coup attempt, the U.S. investigation of a Turkish state-run bank for violating Iran sanctions, and attempts by Congress to prevent delivery of F-35 fighter jets that Turkey has already purchased.

“No-one dictates to Turkey,” Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu tweeted back in an defiant response to Trump’s call for sanctions. “We will never tolerate threats from anybody.”

The angry outbursts by both sides raised questions about how the impasse would be resolved — and whether there was any way left for Erdogan to release Brunson without seeming to cave in to American demands.

There are no indications, at the moment, how the escalating rift, exposing harsh sanctions against Erdoğan's administration, will be resolved.