17 March 2017•Update: 17 March 2017
By Kadir Yildiz
KOCAELI, Turkey
Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag on Friday accused his German counterpart of seeking intervention in Turkey’s judicial system.
Bozdag’s remarks were in response to a March 2 letter from Heiko Maas in which the German justice minister raised the detention of Turkish-German journalist Deniz Yucel.
On Thursday, Turkey’s Justice Ministry sent a response letter clarifying that Die Welt’s Istanbul correspondent Yucel had been arrested for spreading terrorist propaganda, not journalism “as you claimed in the latest letter”.
Speaking in the northwestern Turkish city of Kocaeli on Friday, Bozdag described Maas’ request that Yucel be released as unacceptable.
“Unarguably, the Turkish judiciary is fairer, freer and more impartial than the German judiciary,” he said.
“They are talking about the independence of the judiciary on the one hand and on the other, telling Turkey’s justice minister ‘intervene in the judiciary, if you don’t intervene and don’t release [Yucel] we will not believe in the fairness of your judiciary’,” Bozdag added. “Can a justice minister make a statement like this?”
Bozdag said many European countries have been evaluating Turkey based on terrorist groups’ “perception operation” against Ankara.
He stressed that Turkey’s stance against such propaganda was clear.
“It is unacceptable for the unjust, non-objective propaganda of terror groups to be sent to Turkey through the pen of a minister,” he added.
Tensions between the two countries further escalated earlier this month after German media and politicians sharply criticized Turkey for the pre-trial detention of Yucel on charges of terror propaganda.
