Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his country will not “surrender” under the sanctions imposed by the United States over the detention of an American pastor, accusing Washington of launching an “attempted economic coup” against Ankara.

“Today some people are trying to threaten us through the economy, through interest rates, foreign exchange, investment and inflation. We are telling them: we’ve seen your games, and we are challenging you,” the Turkish leader told thousands of his supporters during the sixth Congress of the ruling AK Party (AKP) in the capital Ankara on Saturday.

The Turkish lira has already lost about 30 percent of its value against the US dollar since the beginning of August, when tensions between the two NATO allies soared unprecedentedly over the detention of Andrew Brunson, an American Christen pastor, in Turkey over terror-related charges.

Brunson, 50, was indicted by a Turkish court on charges of having links with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant group and the movement of the US-based opposition cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara accuses of having masterminded the July 2016 coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The US pastor, who has already spent nearly two years behind bars in Turkey, has denied the charges, calling them “shameful and disgusting.” If the evangelical pastor is found guilty, he will face up to 35 years in jail.

The pastor’s imprisonment and then house arrest have caused one of the deepest rows between Turkey and the US.

Erdogan further said that his country would never bow before those “who set up their own order by exploiting the world.”