Journalist’s arrest heightens Berlin-Ankara tensions

Germany has described the jailing of a German-Turkish journalist for alleged terror links as the“greatest endurance test” yet for any chance of “rational” relations with Ankara.

Deniz Yücel, who holds dual German and Turkish citizenship and writes for Die Welt daily, has been in prison since February 14th.

His initial detention followed reports on hacker attacks on the email account of Turkey’s energy minister, son-in-law of president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as well as interviews with members of outlawed Kurdish groups.

After two weeks in prison, Mr Yücel was formally held on remand on Monday, pending an indictment and trial on suspicion of spreading terrorist propanda and inciting hatred. He is one of more than 150 journalists arrested and imprisoned in Turkey since last year’s failed putsch attempt.

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Chancellor Angela Merkel criticised the move as “disproportionate . . . bitter and disappointing”.

“The German government expects that the Turkish judiciary, in its treatment of the Yücel case, takes account of the high value of freedom of the press for every democratic society,” she said.

The case of Mr Yücel, who faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted, could yet prove the straw that breaks the back of hopelessly strained relations between Berlin and Ankara.

On Tuesday German foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel said the journalist’s detention cast a “harsh light” on the “very different interpretations of press freedom” in Germany and Turkey.

“It has to be clear to Turkey that this comes at a time that is anything but easy, and that the Yücel case makes many things far more difficult,” said Mr Gabriel, a nod to Turkey’s fragile refugee swap deal with the EU.

Release demands

While the Turkish ambassador was summoned into the foreign ministry, around 200 people gathered outside the Turkish embassy in Berlin demanding the journalist’s release, with signs reading #freedeniz nad “no freedom without press freedom.

German opposition politicians said the ongoing attack on press freedom, and now on a German journalist, meant Berlin had to its appeasement “snuggle politics” with the Erdogan government.

“Everyone who is not of Erdogan’s opinion is a terrorist, press freedom now is merely the freedom to praise him,” said Mr Cem Özdemir, co-leader of Germany’s opposition Green Party. “If you criticise him, a commando comes round and picks you up.”

A collapse in relations would come at a high political price for Chancellor Merkel, endangering a controversial refugee swap deal, giving EU aid to Turkey in exchange for taking in would-be EU refugees. The deal, pushed by Dr Merkel to help ease refuge numbers and related political pressures for her, had already began to crumble following last July’s putsch and Ankara’s opposition crackdown.

Now Mr Erdogan’s campaign to create a presidential system, a move critics say will weaken parliament and the judiciary, has amplified doubts about Turkey’s EU accession hopes.

Even before taking office in 2005 Dr Merkel’s personal opposition to Ankara’s EU ambitions has given her relationship with Mr Erdogan a frosty edge.

Attempts to establish a stronger working relationship have been repeatedly derailed by events, such as the German satirist who mocked Mr Erdogan as a paedophile and last year’s Bundestag resolution describing as genocide the 1915 massacre by the Ottoman empire of 1.5 million Armenians.

Aftershocks

The aftershocks of last year’s putsch have burdened relations still further, with a spike in asylum applications in Germany from Turkish citizens: over 5,000 between January and November last year, including some soldiers.

Given limited reporting in Turkey of the Yücel case, few in Berlin’s Turkish neighbourhoods or in online Facebook groups seemed aware of the Yücel case, and even fewer supported the German-Turkish journalist.

One Facebook user suggested Turkey should hand over Mr Yücel if Germany sent back to Turkey the “wannabe . . . convicted Turkish journalist Can Dündar”.

Mr Dündar, the former head of government-critical newspaper Cumhuriyet, is appealing against a five-year prison sentence and now lives in Berlin.

Tensions between Berlin and Ankara are unlikely to ease in the coming months ahead of the looming referendum on Turkey’s constitutional changes.

Last Sunday some 20,000 Erdogan supporters held a demonstration in favour of the president and his proposals, while the Turkish president has expressed an interest in campaigning in Germany for the crucial emigrant vote.