German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel has cancelled his summer vacation due to recent tensions with Turkey, German news agencies reported.
A spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry, Martin Schäfer, said the ministry summoned Turkish ambassador in Berlin to protest against the pre-trial detention of six human rights activists, in particular the arrest of Peter Steudtner.
The Turkish government needs to immediately and directly hear the German government’s outrage and incomprehension as well as its crystal-clear expectations in the case of Peter Steudtner and, this time, without diplomatic niceties
Schäfer said.
On Tuesday, a court in Istanbul sentenced six human rights activists, including Steudtner, to prison pending investigations sparking anger from some European countries.
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The activists were arrested two weeks ago during a workshop in Istanbul and were accused by the Turkish prosecutors of supporting an armed terrorist organisation.
Amnesty International’s director in Turkey, Taner Kilic, has been in jail since June. Kilic and 23 lawyers were arrested in the western city of Izmir. They are suspected of having ties to the US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen.