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Germany threatens overhaul in Turkey ties after activists’ arrests

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The German government on Thursday warned its citizens they could face arbitrary arrest in Turkey and threatened Ankara with sanctions in response to the recent arrest of human rights activists, including a German national.


On July 5, Turkish authorities detained six human rights activists — including Idil Eser, director of Amnesty International’s Turkey branch, Ali Gharavi of Sweden and Peter Steudtner from Germany — at a conference on digital security in Istanbul.


Amnesty says they are accused of supporting an armed terrorist organisation without being members.


German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel warned that any German travelling to Turkey was at risk of arrest and that the country had revised its travel advice to better protect citizens.


Gabriel said Steudtner “never wrote about Turkey, he had no contacts in the political establishment... and never appeared as a critic,” and that any German national travelling to Turkey could suffer the same fate.


Ibrahim Kalin, a spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said that law-abiding Germans had nothing to fear in Turkey.


He added that by demanding the release of Steudtner, Germany was demonstrating a “lack of respect” and attempting to “give orders” to the Turkish judiciary.


Among the diplomatic and economic sanctions being considered by Germany are the withdrawal of export guarantees and the reduction of millions of euros in funding to Turkey from the EU, Gabriel said.


In 2016, the German government guaranteed 20.6 billion euros ($23.7 billion) worth of exports to Turkey.


Total exports to Turkey that year from Germany amounted to 1.2 trillion euros.


The EU allocates an average of 600 million euros per year in pre-accession funds to Turkey.


Gabriel said that he would work with Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Union officials to decide on diplomatic and economic sanctions against Turkey.


Merkel considered new measures against Turkey “necessary and inevitable in light of the development,” her spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Twitter.


Margaritis Schinas, spokesman for the European Commission, said there would be no withdrawal of EU funds to Turkey without the approval of all of the bloc’s member states.


— dpa


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