Trump misunderstanding over prisoner fuelled lira crisis - Ankara sources
(The Guardian World News)

US president believed he had secured deal with Turkish president to secure release of pastor, sources sayThe currency plunge imperilling Turkey´s economy has been fuelled by a standoff between Donald Trump and Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the fate of a Turkish woman detained in Israel whose freedom the US president brokered, and an American pastor held in Turkey whose release he demands in return, officials in Ankara have claimed.Turkish leaders say a synchronised release of the pair - Ebru Özkan, jailed for alleged links to Hamas, and Andrew Brunson, a preacher from North Carolina - was discussed at a Nato summit on 11 July. The conversation predated the confidence crisis now enveloping the Turkish economy, but is seen as a political raison d´etre for a series of US measures that culminated in new tariffs imposed on Turkey on Friday. Continue reading...