BERLIN: A 49-year-old German woman is standing trial in a Turkish court accused of having links to the alleged mastermind of last year’s failed coup, German media reported Friday.
The accused, who has not been named, faces several years in jail if found guilty of belonging to the movement of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, which has been branded a terror organization by Ankara, the reports said.
At the trial in the southern city of Karaman, prosecutors accused her not only of membership of the group, which Turkey calls FETO, but said she led one of its local women’s organizations.
Gulen, an Islamic preacher who lives in exile in the US state of Pennsylvania, denies any link to the botched putsch in July 2016.
The prosecutors said they have electronic proof of the woman’s alleged actions against the Turkish state that were uncovered during raids at her apartment in Turkey.
The Turkish-born woman, who became a German national about 15 years ago, was arrested in August 2016, becoming the first German citizen to be detained after the attempted overthrow of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
She was granted conditional release in September but not allowed to leave Turkey.
But her case is far lower in profile than that of Deniz Yucel, a correspondent for the Die Welt daily newspaper, whose arrest in February on terror charges sparked outrage in Germany.
German journalist Mesale Tolu has been held on similar charges since May, while human rights activist Peter Steudtner was arrested in a July raid.
At least 10 Germans are currently detained in Turkey for political reasons, according to the German Foreign Ministry.
German woman on trial in Turkey over failed coup: media
https://arab.news/y52kk
German woman on trial in Turkey over failed coup: media
US ‘totally stupid’ to attack Iran during talks: UN ambassador
- “War was not our option. War was imposed on Iran,” Bahreini told UN correspondents
- “Nobody should expect Iran to show restraint in front of aggression”
GENEVA: The United States made a “totally stupid decision” to attack Iran while in negotiations, and betrayed Gulf nations by trashing their diplomatic efforts, Tehran’s UN ambassador said Tuesday.
Ali Bahreini, Iran’s ambassador in Geneva, insisted Tehran had no problem with its neighbors, but could not let US bases in the Gulf be used as launchpads for attacks on Iran.
“War was not our option. War was imposed on Iran,” Bahreini told UN correspondents.
“Nobody should expect Iran to show restraint in front of aggression.
“We will continue our defense until the point that this aggression is stopped,” he said.
On February 26, Washington and Tehran held indirect negotiations in Geneva on Iran’s nuclear program — with the Omani mediators reporting “significant progress.”
Bahreini was present for part of those talks and said “everybody was optimistic” and the US team “agreed to continue negotiations” in Vienna this week.
But Bahreini said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had convinced US President Donald Trump to destroy diplomacy and attack Iran, with strikes starting on Saturday.
“It was a totally stupid decision. They will know in the future how stupid this decision has been. Both of them will understand, because Iran will firmly determine the situation and the destiny of this war,” he said.
“All our neighbors are now disappointed with the betrayal of the United States because everybody was working for diplomacy, particularly Oman.
“The US betrayed everybody.”
- ‘Not a regional war’ -
Tehran has launched strikes against countries in the region that host US bases.
“I cannot accept labelling what we are doing as reprisal. What we are doing is a kind of self-defense,” said Bahreini.
The ambassador said Iran’s problem was not with its neighbors, describing the Gulf countries as friends.
“We are in daily dialogue with our neighbors to convey to them the message that this war is not a war against our neighbors.
“This is not a regional war.
“But we cannot ignore the fact that the US bases in their lands are operational against us.
“In no way we can allow those bases to be used to make military operations against Iran.”
He said Iran’s operations were “exclusively” against US military targets, and said “there has been very serious order given to our military forces not to make any harm to civilians.”
Trump claimed Tuesday that the Iranian leadership “want to talk” but Bahreini insisted no approach had been made to Washington, saying “there hasn’t been any contact from our side” since the war erupted.
