Podcast59 German citizens jailed in Turkey
Currently, 59 German citizens are in Turkish prisons, and another 74 German citizens are barred from leaving Turkey pending investigation, German Foreign Ministry has announced. German Chancellor Merkel is expected to discuss this issue during her meeting with Turkish President Erdoğan in Istanbul on Jan. 24.
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German Foreign Ministry has announced that a total of 59 German citizens are currently jailed in Turkish prisons and another 74 German citizens are barred from leaving Turkey pending trial, Deutsche Welle's Turkish service reported on Jan. 21.
The number of German citizens barred from leaving Turkey was announced as 38 in August and 55 in November.
As for the number of German citizens jailed in Turkey, this figure was announced as 60 in November. The German Foreign Ministry did not say how many of them were imprisoned due to political reasons such as “insulting” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan or for terror charges.
The arrest of German citizens is expected to be on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's agenda during her meeting with Erdoğan in Istanbul on Jan. 24.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas had in November said that the issue of imprisonment of German citizens in Turkey had created an obstacle for the relations between the two countries to be “normalized.”
In March of last year, German Foreign Ministry tightened its travel advisory for Turkey, saying opinions expressed freely in Germany may not be tolerated by Turkish authorities.