The Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that it had summoned the German ambassador in Ankara over what it calls the detention of Turkish reporters in Frankfurt.
The ministry denounced the “harassment and intimidation” against the Turkish reporters who work for the pro-government Daily Sabah’s Frankfurt bureau, according to a ministry statement.
The statement said the detention was “a deliberate act” that came in the wake of Türkiye’s presidential and parliamentary elections on Sunday, expecting the “immediate release” of the reporters.
“Germany’s action against the free press, which aims to teach the whole world about the freedom of press and expression, reveals its double-standard approach,” it noted.
Daily Sabah reported that its Germany representative Ismail Erel and Editor-in-Chief Cemil Albay were detained on Wednesday morning upon a complaint by a fugitive of the Gulen movement residing in Germany.
The Turkish government accuses the Gulen movement of infiltrating into the state bureaucracy and attempting a coup on July 15, 2016. Ankara has been carrying out a massive crackdown on suspects with links to the movement since the coup attempt. ■
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