The German journalists’ association DJV advises professional media workers not to travel either for professional or personal reasons in Turkey, after the temporary arrest of a German parliamentarian at the beginning of the month.

THE arrest of Yokai Akbulut upon entering Turkey in early August shows “once again that (Turkish President Recep Tayyip) Erdogan’s autocracy views its critics as militant enemies of the state and persecutes them when it gets the chance,” Frank said. Uberal, head of DJV, according to a statement issued by the union today.

If parliamentary immunity does not protect against arrest, the risk for journalists is even greater, DJV emphasizes.

Akbulut, a member of parliament from the German party Die Linke (Left), was arrested and detained for several hours by the Turkish authorities. An arrest warrant, which was later canceled by Turkish authorities, had been issued against her for “alleged terrorist propaganda”, Akbulut told the Mannheimer Morgen newspaper. The Turkish-born politician, of Kurdish-Alevi origin, has been an MP since 2017.

He has repeatedly criticized the Turkish government and is campaigning to lift the German ban on the activities of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an organization that Ankara and the EU, among others, label as terrorist.

After her arrest, the German embassy in Ankara and the German Foreign Ministry intervened and the MP was released.
“Anyone, as a journalist, who has made critical comments against Turkey, its president or the ruling Justice and Development Party in their own articles and on social media, should not travel to the country,” Uberal stressed.

Otherwise faces incalculable risks, he warned.