German MP says she was detained in Turkiye for social media posts

A view of court building where Faruk Fatih Ozer, the founder of the crypto exchange Thodex appears in court regarding his extradition process to Turkiye, in Elbasan, Albania on November 14, 2022 [Olsi Shehu – Anadolu Agency]

A German lawmaker said, on Sunday, she was detained for several hours when entering Turkiye earlier this month based on social media posts, she made in 2019, adding that she would still travel to Turkiye and speak her mind about its government, Reuters reports.

According to the report, Goekay Akbulut, a Bundestag member for far-left Die Linke party, was detained in Antalya Airport on 3 August after an arrest warrant was issued by the Turkish public prosecutor for alleged “terror propaganda”, she said.

Germany is home to the world’s largest Turkish diaspora community, but relations between Berlin and Ankara have been strained in recent years by German criticism of President Tayyip Erdogan’s crackdown on suspected opponents after a failed coup in 2016 and Turkiye’s military offensive against Kurdish militia in Syria in 2019.

Akbulut, a Turkiye-born German citizen of Kurdish heritage, was released after contacting the German Foreign Ministry, the report added.

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