Turkey Applies to Germany via Interpol for 848 Times in 797 Days

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

Turkey has submitted 848 requests of search or arrest to Germany via Interpol since the coup attempt on July 15, 2016.

The Left Party (Die Linke) previously submitted a parliamentary inquiry to be responded by the Ministry of Justice of Germany, requesting information on how many applications of search or arrest Turkey has made.

According to the response of the Ministry of Justice, since July 15, 2016, Turkey has applied to the Law Enforcement Agency of the country to request the arrest of 791 people. In its other applications, Turkey has requested that the residential addresses of 57 people be located.

In the answer of the ministry, no information has been provided regarding how many applications of Turkey have been responded by Germany.

Hunko: Interpol is being abused

European Policy Spokesperson of the Left Party parliamentary group Andrej Hunko has made a statement regarding the issue.

Emphasizing that 130 search requests submitted to Interpol since 2014 have been cancelled on the ground that the people in question are sought due to their political views and the authority of Interpol is abused, Hunko has said,

"I think that the majority of the applications of search or arrest which have been cancelled on the ground that Interpol is being abused have originated from Turkey, Ukraine and Spain. It is known that these countries use Interpol to suppress the opposition."

Akhanlı and Yalçın were previously detained

Writer Doğan Akhanlı, a citizen of Germany, and writer Hamza Yalçın, a citizen of Sweden, were taken into custody in Spain in 2017 upon the request of Turkey submitted via Interpol.

Speaking about the detentions, Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel criticized Turkey by stating that Interpol cannot be used "for such things."

According to the information shared by the government of Germany, since the coup attempt, 35 citizens of Germany have been arrested in Turkey for political reasons. 16 of the arrested were temporarily in Turkey. There are currently seven citizens of Germany behind bars in Turkey. (HK/SD)

* Source: Deutsche Welle Türkçe