As Turkey’s Economic Struggles Continue, Qatar Offers a $15 Billion Lifeline

ISTANBUL — Turkey won a measure of international support in its increasingly tense standoff with the United States on Wednesday when Qatar offered a relatively small but symbolically important financial lifeline.

Qatar pledged to invest $15 billion in Turkey after a lunch in Ankara, Turkey’s capital, between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the emir of Qatar, representatives of both governments said.

The sum is a small fraction of what Turkey would need to shore up its faltering economy or pay its dollar debts, which have become increasing unsustainable after a sharp decline in the Turkish lira.

But the promise of investment was trumpeted by the Turkish news media as a victory for Erdogan on the same day that Turkey rejected a second legal appeal to release the American pastor Andrew Brunson. Turkey also sharply raised tariffs on American goods Wednesday, as it pushed back against pressure from the United States.

President Donald Trump imposed 50 percent tariffs on imported Turkish steel last week after talks to release Brunson broke down, effectively cutting off Turkish steel-makers from their largest foreign market.

The dispute unsettled foreign investors already concerned about Turkey’s overheated economy and sent the lira to record lows last week, though the currency recovered some ground Wednesday.

Qatar’s financial support for Turkey was another demonstration of their alliance amid the shifting geopolitical fault lines of the region, in which they have often lined up in opposition to the Trump-allied rulers of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

While a few countries like Russia have offered rhetorical support for Turkey, Qatar is the first to pledge money.

The financial support “confirms that Qatar continues to promote economic cooperation between the two countries and we have full confidence in the strength of the Turkish economy,” a spokesman for the Qatari government wrote in a Twitter post Wednesday.

In June 2017, Turkey was among the first countries to side with Qatar after four Arab countries, led by the Saudis and Emiratis, imposed a punishing trade and diplomatic embargo against Qatar.

As most Western countries sought to keep out of the dispute, Erdogan sided firmly with Qatar, pledging to send troops to Qatar at a time when Qatari officials feared Saudi military action was imminent.

Brunson, who had asked a court to free him on health grounds, was moved to house arrest last month after his initial detention 22 months ago on charges of aiding terrorist groups touched off a diplomatic dispute between the United States and Turkey.

More than 20 American citizens, including Brunson, and three Turkish employees of the United States diplomatic mission in Turkey have been detained over the past two years.

The Americans have been prosecuted mostly on terrorism charges under the state of emergency imposed after a failed coup in July 2016. All but Brunson are Turkish-Americans, and, under Turkish law, they are treated as Turkish citizens, which makes it more difficult for the American authorities to advocate on their behalf.

The Trump administration has pressed hard for the release of Brunson, an evangelical pastor who has lived in the Turkish coastal city of Izmir for 23 years and ran the Resurrection Church in Izmir. American officials say he is innocent of all charges.

Washington ordered financial sanctions against the Turkish interior minister and justice minister after Turkey prolonged Brunson’s detention in July. Days later, the Turkish lira began its precipitous fall, worsened by Trump’s announcement of additional tariffs.

Jeffrey Hovenier, the American chargé d’affaires in Turkey, posted on Twitter on Monday that he had visited Brunson and his wife, Norine, at their home. He called on the Turkish authorities to resolve the cases of the Americans and the three consular employees in “a fair and transparent manner.”

Most of the detainees were swept up in the government crackdown after the failed coup and are accused of having links to the movement of Fethullah Gulen, the Islamist preacher who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania. He is accused by the Turkish government of instigating the coup attempt, a charge that he denies.

Turkey has requested Gulen’s extradition from the United States, but Washington has not moved on the request. Diplomats concur that Gulen’s followers were among the leaders of the coup attempt but say there is little evidence of Gulen’s involvement that would satisfy a court.

American officials have accused Turkey of detaining the American citizens and consular employees as leverage in the dispute.

Among those in prison is Serkan Golge, 38, a NASA research scientist who was vacationing with relatives in Turkey in the summer of 2016. Golge was convicted in February of having links with a terrorist organization, the Gulen movement, and sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison.

Washington has said that he was convicted without credible evidence, though the Turkish government has defended his trial and sentence. Golge is appealing. His wife, Kubra, also a Turkish-American, is barred from traveling outside Turkey.

Another Turkish-American couple who work at a private university in western Turkey have been sentenced to 10 years in prison, also for links to a terrorist organization. The husband, a business administrator, remains in high-security detention at the Sincan prison complex, where Brunson spent some of his detention.

The wife, who asked that their names not be published for fear of affecting their cases, has been released pending appeal because she has a small child. If their sentences are upheld by the Supreme Court, she will have to serve her term in prison. Others who have been prosecuted include two brothers from Pennsylvania: Ismail Kul, a chemistry professor at Widener University; and his brother, Mustafa Kul, a real estate agent. They were arrested in August 2016 at their home in Bursa, in northwest Turkey, during a summer vacation. They were accused of being members of the Gulen movement and of playing a part in the failed coup.

Ismail Kul had lived in the United States since 1994, received a master’s degree and doctorate from Clemson University in South Carolina and owns two patents in the United States, according to his resume.

At his trial, which is continuing, Kul admitted knowing Gulen but exposed the shakiness of the government’s charges when he explained that it was a member of the governing Justice and Development Party, Ahmet Aydin, the deputy chairman of Parliament, who first took him to meet the cleric.

“In 2010, I met Ahmet Aydin at a culture festival in Philadelphia,” Kul told the court, the nationalist daily newspaper Sozcu reported in January. “I had breakfast with him and his detail,” he was quoted as saying. “They told me that they will see Gulen and suggested that I accompany them. That’s how I met Fethullah Gulen. After that, I visited Gulen four or five times.”

Of the Turkish employees of the American consular mission, Hamza Ulucay, who had worked for 36 years in the American Consulate in Adana, in southeastern Turkey, was detained in February 2017 and indicted on a charge of having contacts with the Gulen movement and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known as the PKK His trial is continuing.

Two other employees of the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul were also detained and have yet to be indicted. Metin Topuz, who has worked at the mission for the Drug Enforcement Administration for more than 20 years, was arrested on charges similar to those against Ulucay in October.

Days after Topuz’s arrest, the Istanbul police searched the home of a third employee, Mete Canturk, who has also worked for years at the Istanbul consulate. Canturk has since been placed under house arrest.