Turkey FM accuses foreign journalists of being spies

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) - Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Monday charged at least two foreign journalists detained in his country with working for spy agencies.

During a joint press conference with his German counterpart Sigmar Gabriel in capital Ankara, Cavusoglu said the case of the Turkish-German journalist Deniz Yucel of the daily Die Welt had "nothing to do with journalism."

Instead, Cavusoglu accused Yucel arrested in February of "terrorism" for his previous interviews with leaders of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), reported Kurdistan24's Ankara Bureau.

"Recently a new trend started in Europe. Intelligence services particularly began using journalists as spies in Turkey," claimed Cavusoglu stopping short of naming any European spy agency.

"And when [we] catch them [Europeans] start creating pressure alleging journalists are locked up," continued Cavusoglu who also mentioned the case of the French photographer Mathias Depardon who Turkey arrested last month.

"[Depardon] took pictures of our military bases, secret locations and went to Iraq," the Turkish FM added, implying the French photographer shared information with the PKK based in mountainous areas of the Kurdistan Region.

Turkish police arrested Depardon in the Kurdish province of Batman province on May 8 while on assignment for the US-based National Geographic magazine.

Shortly after he began a hunger strike in protest, ending a week ago when Turkish authorities allowed a visit by officials from the French embassy in Ankara.

During a NATO summit in late May, both the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the newly-elected French President Emmanuel Macron asked Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan about the fate of their detained nationals.

Erdogan had previously called on Germany to extradite over four thousand 500 people allegedly affiliated with the PKK and the US-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen's movement which he holds responsible for the failed 2016 military coup attempt against his rule.

Upon his return from the NATO summit in Brussels, Erdogan complained to Turkish media that "Merkel was obsessed with Deniz Yucel," reminding her of his extradition requests.

There are more than 140 journalists or media workers, a majority of them Kurdish, in Turkish prisons.

Another high-profile detainee in Turkey that complicated the country's relations with the Western world is the American pastor Andrew Brunson.

Police arrested Brunson, a resident of Turkey for 23 years, in October 2016 with charges of working against national security and affiliation with the Gulenists.

US President Donald Trump, according to a White House statement, raised the incarceration Brunson three times during a face to face meeting with Erdogan during the latter's hectic visit to Washington DC in mid-May.

Pro-government Turkish Islamist media claimed Brunson had organized special Christian sermons in Kurdish for members of the PKK.

A columnist for the Yenisafak newspaper, Merve Sebnem Oruc said the US should know that Brunson could be exchanged for Gulen.

"Doesn't Trump understand that Erdogan [means], give me Gulen, take Brunson?"

Editing by Ava Homa