Quick Facts
Biography
Andrew C. Brunson is an American evangelical pastor of the Izmir Resurrection Church, a small Protesant church with about 25 congregants. Brunson, 48, who was applying for Turkish permanent residency, having lived there 23 years, was imprisoned on 7 October 2016, accused of being a member of the Gülen movement, which the Turkish government considers to be a terrorist organization.The charges were later amended to include spying and attempting to overthrow the government. Brunson shares a small cell with 17 Turkish prisoners also allegedly in some way affiliated with the Gulen movement.
Recent events
In a March 2017 letter to U.S. President Donald Trump through an attorney with American Center for Law & Justice, Brunson said, "Let the Turkish government know that you will not cooperate with them in any way until they release me."
According to Slate, "The case against Brunson is reportedly based on the testimony of an undisclosed witness, though reports vary as to what exactly the witness alleges. In one version, Brunson attended a Gulenist event. In another, he spoke positively once about relations between Christians and the movement." Brenson was charged with "membership in an armed terrorist organization," "gathering state secrets for espionage, attempting to overthrow the Turkish parliament and government, and to change the constitutional order." A Dec. 14, 2016 Sabah daily news story based on an informant said Brunson, while dispensing aid among Syrian refugees, tried to divide Turkey with sermons praising Gulenism and by speaking in support of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Brunson has said, "I am not a member of an Islamic movement. I have never seen any member of FETÖ [the Gulen movement] in my life." The pro-Erdogan administration newspaper Takvim alleges Brunson, a "high-level member of the Gulen movement" and an American spy, positioned to have become CIA chief in Turkey had the 2016 coup attempt succeeded.
According to a February 2017 letter to the president of Turkey signed by 78 members of the U.S. Congress, "There appears to be no evidence to substantiate the charges against him for membership in an armed terrorist organization."
On 28 September 2017, Erdoğan has called on the United States to exchange Pennsylvania-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen with Pastor Andrew Brunson. Erdogan possesses Turkish Constitutional authority to to extradite foreigners. In the U.S., the Federal judiciary is mandated to determine extradition cases.