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ANKARA, Nov. 3-- Turkey and the United States mutually removed sanctions on each other's ministers on Friday, a move toward normalization of bilateral relations, yet there is a rocky path ahead for full recovery of a deeply soured ties. Turkey lifted travel ban, freezing of assets, ban on financial and trade transactions on U.S. ministers Jeff Sessions and Kirsjten Nielsen, while the U.S. Treasury removed sanctions on Turkish ministers, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in a statement on Friday. The decision of the two NATO allies came one day after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump talked over the phone on Thursday. Ankara and Washington simultaneously announced the decision two weeks after release of the pastor Andrew Brunson who was detained in Turkey on terrorism charges and espionage. The case casted shadow on the bilateral ties of the two countries in the past few years, but the crisis hit peak in August when Washington sanctioned Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu and Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul for their alleged role in the detention of Brunson. The United States declared to ban the access of two Turkish ministers to U.S. assets and Turkey swiftly responded by slapping the same sanctions on the two U.S. ministers, Jeff Sessions and Kirsjten Nielsen. Trump also declared doubling of duties on aluminum and steel imported from Turkey. Turkey hit back by raising tariffs on U.S. cars, alcohol and tobacco imports. | 
