The Arrest of the Die Welt Journalist in Turkey for "Improper" Use of the Letters of Erdogan's Son-in-Law

• 03.01.2017, 11:58
•  Region,  World

REUTERS

The court in Istanbul on Monday, February 27th, approved the Turkish prosecutor's request for the arrest of journalist from German Die Welt, Deniz Yucel, who has been in custody since February 18, Deutsche Welle reports.

The accusations against German journalist are pretty serious. Deniz Yucel is charged with membership in a terrorist organization, terrorist propaganda and data misuse.

In order to make it more or less clear what the term "data misuse" means, we should refer to other information, according to which Deniz Yucel published some materials from the Turkish President’s son-in-law, Turkish Minister of Energy, Berat Albayrak correspondence, hacked in December 2016 by the WikiLeaks. In these letters, in particular, there are issues of control over the Turkish media and the establishment of special accounts in social networks, through which it would be possible to control public opinion.

But it was not only this information that was hidden in the letters of Erdogan's daughter’s husband. According to the WikiLeaks website, "these emails contain detailed information on the involvement of Albayrak in the organizations such as Powertrans, a company, which is involved in the IS oil import".

Deniz Yucel himself, who, by the way, has a dual citizenship, both German and Turkish, has not yet talked about the activities of the Turkish authorities in his articles. However it seems like that would just be a matter of time. Hence, there is the apparent haste to make the journalist silent…

Actions of the Turkish authorities, of course, caused a negative reaction in Berlin. Thus, a spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry, Martin Schaefer on February 27 urged the Turkish authorities to free Yucel. A day earlier, Germany's Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel spoke with criticism towards Turkey, saying that "there is no need, and it's totally unjustified to detain Deniz Yucel for so long before being questioned at the prosecutor's office."

In addition, the 160 deputies of the Bundestag in an open letter to the Turkish ambassador in Germany called to assist his release. German Chancellor Angela Merkel in turn called the court decision "a very sad one."

"The Government of Germany expects that in the light of the Yucel case, the Turkish justice system will have in mind the crucial importance of freedom of the press in all democratic societies," this was written in the Chancellor's statement.

However, it is quite unlikely that these appeals will change the behavior of the Turkish authorities, including President Erdogan, whose opponents are all accused of terrorism or being unwilling to fight terrorism, as, for example, was the case with Greece. All the "sin" of the Greeks was that they found it impossible to return the eight Turkish soldiers who had fled after the military coup in July last year…