ANKARA: Turkish police on Sunday detained the editor in chief of Russia’s Sputnik Turkiye news agency in Istanbul, and three other staffers, the global head of the state-run agency said, but they were released after a phone call between the foreign ministers of the two countries.
Four employees from the Turkish edition of Russian news agency Sputnik, including Editor in Chief Mahir Boztepe, were detained by Turkish police allegedly over an article published by the outlet on the history of Turkey’s southern province Hatay.
Earlier on Sunday, the employees’ houses were attacked by mobs who attempted to break down doors and threatened the Turkish staff, calling them “traitors” and “Russian spies” and chanting “Turkey is for the Turks.”
Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency covered the attacks against the Ankara-based journalists, and police have launched an investigation into the attack.
How the mob obtained the home addresses of the Sputnik staff members is still unclear.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry has called the attack on Sputnik’s employees and their detention by police a “flagrant violation of the rights of journalists.”
Moscow called on Ankara to intervene to resolve the situation and to ensure the safety of Russian media representatives in the country.
The Foreign Ministry also urged Turkish authorities to help clarify the circumstances surrounding the incident.
“The journalists were threatened with physical violence, and they were told to stop their professional activities,” the ministry said.
“According to available information, the (employees) have been in the hands of Turkish security forces. The situation is further complicated by the fact that it is not possible to establish contact with them.”
In the article, published in English, Hatay province is called “the stolen province” of Syria.
The killing of dozens of Turkish soldiers in air attacks from Russia-backed Syrian regime forces in Idlib province in February has caused tensions to soar between Ankara and Moscow.
The Ottoman Empire lost Hatay to France in the aftermath of World War I and the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, which mapped most of present-day Turkey, confirming Hatay as part of the French mandate of Syria.
HIGHLIGHT
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow on March 5 to discuss the crisis in Idlib.
Considering the province’s geographical proximity and its Turkish-speaking community, the Turkish government asked for its reunification with Turkey in 1936.
After a treaty between France and Turkey that guaranteed Turkish support during World War II, the province was given to Turkey in 1939 with a plebiscite.
Hatay residents voted to become part of Turkey. In its article, however, Sputnik described the plebiscite as “rigged.”
Borders with Syria were fixed just after the annexation of Hatay. After its independence in 1945, Syria declined to recognize Hatay as part of Turkey, and the issue has long strained bilateral relations.
Syrian refugees fleeing war and violence in their home country mainly stay in Hatay, located on the coast north of Latakia governorate.
The Syrian Army announced on Sunday the closure of airspace over Idlib, warning that it would shoot any aircraft that violated it.
Although Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar on Sunday said Turkey does not wish for confrontation with Russia, experts warn that tension between the two countries has spilled over to the media sector, with retaliation a possibility from the Russian side.
“By criminalizing Sputnik’s black propaganda, Turkey has presented the Russian agency with further opportunity to make propaganda against Turkey,” said Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, Ankara’s office director of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
Turkey’s Union of Journalists released a statement calling the arrests of Sputnik’s three employees unacceptable.
“The cost of the inter-state tension should not be paid back to the journalists. Journalists are not enemies, but people trying to inform the public,” the statement read.
“It is the state’s duty to provide them with a free environment to accomplish their mission rather than targeting them.”
In February, several journalists were arrested in Turkey, with many given long prison terms. More than 100 press staffers went on trial, and seven TV channels, including Fox TV, were fined.
Three Turkish journalists were also arrested recently while covering the passage of refugees from Turkish cities to Greece after Ankara announced that it had “opened the gates for them to flee to Europe.”
Regarding the Sputnik case, a prominent Turkish journalist tweeted: “Who cannot beat his donkey, beats his saddle. Those who could not speak to Putin are detaining Turkish correspondents of the Russian channel.”
Alptekin Dursunoglu, editor in chief of news site Yakin Dogu and an expert on the Syrian conflict, was also arrested late Saturday, with no reason provided.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow on March 5 to discuss the crisis in Idlib.
Last year, during a cooling of tensions between Turkey and Russia, the Russian-financed Sputnik language service in Turkey dismissed three journalists following their interview with Erdogan’s rival and former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
The interview was about Davutoglu’s new party, which would challenge the dominant Justice and Development Party.
It was not broadcast, but rather posted on a journalist’s YouTube channel. Sputnik cancelled the journalists’ contracts.
