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Pompeo closed his remarks by recalling Andrew Brunson, the American evangelical pastor who was held hostage in Turkey from 2016 to 2018.

Brunson, whose only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time, was arrested during the course of the mass arrests that followed the failed coup d’etat against the regime of Turkey’s Islamist dictator Recep Tayyip Erdogan in July 2016.

In 2017, Erdogan demanded that Israel repatriate a Turkish terrorist it had arrested in exchange for Brunson. After President Donald Trump asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to help out, Israel released the terrorist and sent her back to her state sponsor of terrorism, Turkey.

But instead of keeping his end of the bargain and releasing Brunson, Erdogan upped the ante.

Erdogan demanded that Trump extradite Turkish expatriate cleric Fethullah Gülen from his home in Pennsylvania. Erdogan alleges that Gülen and his followers were responsible for the failed coup.

The Trump administration was not impressed by Erdogan’s offer. Rather than extradite Gülen, President Trump slapped tariffs on Turkish aluminum and steel exports to the United States and demanded Brunson’s release. A few months later, Erdogan released Brunson and the tariffs were later withdrawn. Gülen remains in Pennsylvania.

Mediterranean nations like #Turkey, Greece, and Egypt are engaging in a maritime dance of political posturing, and further escalation is likely.
Turkey's power plays in the Mediterranean | CaspianReport

The nations of Greece and Turkey have shared a long and somewhat mixed history, alternating between periods of conflict and hostility towards each other, to times of peace and understanding between the two Republics. From Greece's split from the Ottoman Empire and establishing of its independence in 1832, all the way to the ongoing high tensions between the two during NATO meetings in 2020, these two seem to always have something against each other -- and with such a deeply complex history, it's easy to understand why. Today, we'll be taking you through some of the key factors in this complicated international relationship, as well as examining which of these two nations holds the greater military superiority, and which would more likely come out on top if they were ever engaged in another full-on conflict.
Greece vs Turkey -- 2020 Military/Army Comparison | The Infographics Show