Germany's Merkel censures Turkey for media crackdown
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has voiced concern about Turkey’s widening crackdown on the media.
"It is extremely alarming to me and the federal government (that) freedom of the press is being curtailed time and again," Merkel said on Wednesday.
Berlin and the European Union have criticized the Turkish government for acting far beyond the rule of law in its crackdown on the media.
The German chancellor also rejected a claim by Ankara that the recent arrest of a senior journalist was in line with Turkey's law on fighting terror.
Merkel's spokesman said earlier on Wednesday that the arrest last month of Murat Sabuncu, the editor of the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper, was hugely worrying.
"We have big doubts whether the actions against editor-in-chief Murat Sabuncu and his colleagues are in line with the principles of the rule of law," Steffen Seibert said during a regular briefing with journalists. Berlin, he added, would raise the issue with Ankara.
Relations between Germany and Turkey have deteriorated over Ankara's crackdown that was launched in the wake of the July 15 coup attempt.
Seibert said Germany planned no sanctions against Turkey in relation to the crackdown, which has seen 35,000 people arrested and a further 100,000 discharged from their positions in the army and public institutions. The German official said contacts between the two sides would continue as before.
Turkey has accused Sabuncu and other executives of Cumhuriyet of having links to Kurdish militants as well as Fethullah Gulen, a US-based cleric whom Turkey blames for the failed coup. Gulen denies the allegation. Many other journalists, lawyers and academics have also faced similar charges and are behind bars in Turkey.
Ignoring the EU’s criticism of the crackdown, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said recently that he would seek the approval of the parliament for a reinstatement of the capital punishment as a way of dealing with suspected coup plotters.
Turkey abolished the death penalty in 2005, when it officially launched its bid for membership in the EU. Officials in Brussels have warned that Ankara's possible reinstatement of the penalty would mean an end to its dreams for joining the EU.
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