Turkey protests detention of two journalists in Germany
Turkey has summoned the German ambassador in Ankara to condemn the operation against reporters from a pro-government newspaper.
German police briefly arrested two journalists working for a Turkish newspaper and searched their homes in an operation that drew strong protest from the Turkish Foreign Ministry.
Turkey on Wednesday summoned the German ambassador to Ankara to condemn the operation targeting journalists from a pro-government Turkish newspaper in the latest of tensions between the two NATO allies.
Officers searched the homes of two journalists, aged 46 and 51, in a Frankfurt suburb on Wednesday morning “on suspicion of endangering the dissemination of personal data,” said regional police and the prosecutor’s office in the nearby city of Darmstadt .
“During the operation, investigators seized electronic storage media and other evidence. After the criminal investigation was completed, the two men were released,” said a joint press release from the Darmstadt public prosecutor’s office and the South Hesse police.
Germany is home to the world’s largest Turkish diaspora community, but relations between Berlin and Ankara have suffered many problems in recent years, including Germany’s handling of the followers of US-based Muslim leader Fethullah Gülen, who Ankara is being blamed for a failed 2016 coup.
Turkey is outraged by Germany’s refusal to extradite military officers Ankara accuses of taking part in the coup attempt after they applied for asylum.
Turkey’s state news agency Anadolu reported that German police raided the Frankfurt office of Turkish daily Sabah before detaining the journalists.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry denounced the “harassment and intimidation” of reporters, who work for the pro-government Sabah.
It said what it described as the “arrests” of the journalists was “a deliberate act” days after the first round of Turkey’s presidential and parliamentary elections.
“Germany’s action against the free press, which aims to educate the whole world about freedom of the press and expression, reveals its double standard approach,” the ministry said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s media director Fahrettin Altun condemned the reported raids and the seizure of reporters’ equipment.
“We find the German position of silencing journalists unacceptable and we are concerned about the suppression of press freedom in this country,” he wrote on Twitter.
The diplomatic row broke out after elections on Sunday, in which Erdogan just failed to be re-elected in the first round of voting.
He will enter the second round on May 28 as a favorite against opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who has pledged to broaden Turkish media freedoms.
Sabah belongs to the Turkuvaz Media Group, which has close ties to Erdogan’s family. The Frankfurt office is the headquarters for the European activities.