On Sunday there will be elections in Turkey, before the Foreign Office called in the Turkish ambassador. The federal government is angry because Turkey accuses it of “double standards” in a dispute over media freedom.
Shortly before the run-off election for the office of Turkish President, there was another diplomatic scandal between Turkey and Germany. The Federal Foreign Office summoned the Turkish ambassador to Berlin on Tuesday, in response to allegations by the government in Ankara against Germany. The ambassador was informed “that the federal government firmly rejects the allegations of the Turkish government in relation to freedom of expression and freedom of the press and the judiciary in Germany,” said the Federal Foreign Office in the short message service Twitter.
The background to the dispute is the house searches of two Turkish journalists near Frankfurt am Main. Last week, the Turkish government had therefore already summoned the German ambassador. The Foreign Ministry in Ankara accused Germany of wanting to “harass and intimidate” the Turkish press. Germany wants to “educate the whole world about freedom of the press and freedom of expression” – but is doing so with “double standards”, it said in Ankara.
It’s about journalists from Turkey who are said to be close to President Erdogan
The house searches concerned the homes of two employees of the pro-government newspaper Sabah. The reason given by the public prosecutor’s office in Darmstadt and the police headquarters in southern Hesse last week was the suspicion of “dangerous dissemination of personal data”. The 46 and 51-year-old journalists were released again.
The Sabah newspaper is part of the Turkuvaz Media Group, which has close ties to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s family. Her Frankfurt office is the headquarters for her work in Europe. Around 90 percent of Turkish media organizations are controlled by the government or are politically close to it.
The run-off election in Turkey, in which incumbent President Erdogan and his challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu compete against each other, will take place next Sunday.
Source: Stern
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