It was only three months ago that President Donald Trump was boasting about sanctions designed to cripple Turkey’s economy. On Monday, Turkey became one of eight countries to receive an exemption from sanctions designed to cripple Iran's economy.
Granted, in the interim, a few things happened. To start, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last month finally allowed the American pastor Andrew Brunson to leave his jail cell and return home. His imprisonment had been a major irritant with Trump, who believed Erdogan had backed out of an earlier deal to free him. Brunson’s release came when Erdogan had some leverage because of Saudi Arabia’s killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Turkish consulate in Istanbul. Erdogan’s government has been dripping out details of that Saudi crime for a month, but has yet to release an audio recording of the crime itself.
