The German government summoned the Turkish ambassador in Berlin on Tuesday to reject criticism of the judiciary following recent raids on Turkish journalists in Frankfurt, the German foreign ministry announced.
“The Turkish ambassador (…) has been informed that the federal government firmly rejects the allegations made by the Turkish government about freedom of expression and press freedom, as well as the judiciary in Germany,” the ministry said.
The recall of the Turkish ambassador followed a similar decision by Ankara regarding the German ambassador on May 17, following the search for two journalists from a Turkish pro-government daily.
At the time, the Turkish Foreign Ministry denounced the “unjustified arrest of two representatives of the Frankfurt delegation from the Sabah newspaper” as an “act aimed at intimidating and harassing the Turkish press”.
The public prosecutor’s office in Darmstadt (Germany) assured that there had been no arrests, but confirmed the searches of the two journalists, seizing “electronic media and other evidence”.
According to Sabah, the raids against the two journalists stemmed from a complaint filed by supporters of the theologian Fethullah Gülen, based in the United States, who accuse Ankara of planning the 2016 coup attempt.
“The arrest of Turkish journalists for their articles about the terrorist organization Feto [acrónimo utilizado por Ancara para designar o movimento Gulen] it is a clear violation of press freedom,” said the communications director of the Turkish presidency, Fahrettin Altun, on the social network Twitter.
Source: DN
