DMP Gökay Akbulut (Die Linke) was apparently arrested on entering Turkey. The incident is said to have happened on August 3 in Antalya. Several hours after her arrest, Akbulut was reportedly released.
According to reports, she was brought before a magistrate and was held even after she had already identified herself as a German member of the Bundestag.
The Foreign Office told the FAZ that the ministry was aware of the incident. The German embassy in Ankara and the consulate in Antalya were “in very close contact” with the MP. After being informed about the arrest, the federal government intervened “at a high level, forcefully and through various channels” and obtained his immediate release.
According to reports, the Turkish Minister of Justice was also involved.
Akbulut has been a member of the Bundestag since 2017
Akbulut commented on the arrest on Platform X late on Saturday evening. “It was only in Turkey at the airport that I found out that there was an arrest warrant from the Kayseri public prosecutor’s office against me.” Before she had to testify, the file was deleted “within a few hours”, wrote the left-wing MP and thanked the foreign office. The incident shows that there is no separation of powers in Turkey.
Inquiries from the FAZ in the Bundestag and constituency office of the MPs, for example about the exact reason for the arrest, remained unanswered until Saturday evening. The Turkish-born politician from Mannheim, who has been a member of the Bundestag since 2017, has campaigned in the past for the ban on activities against the “Kudistan Workers’ Party” (PKK) to be lifted in Germany. She submitted a corresponding request in May 2022 during a question time in the Bundestag.
According to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the PKK has been banned from operating in Germany since 1993 and has been on the EU terror list since 2002. The aim of the PKK is greater political and cultural independence for the Kurdish population. In Turkey, the northern Iraqi border region and northern Syria, they have armed guerrilla units that have been involved in military conflicts with the Turkish armed forces for years.
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