Turkish regime arrests 4 Sputnik employees
Russian news agency Sputnik has reported that police have entered its Istanbul office and arrested Sputnik Turkey’s editor-in-chief .
The arrest of Mahir Boztepe, the head of Sputnik’s Turkish branch, was confirmed by RT and Sputnik editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan.
This new development brings the number of detained Sputnik employees in Turkey to four. Earlier three agency staff members, who had been targeted by Turkish nationalists on Saturday and turned to police for help, ended up in custody.
The homes of Sputnik employees in Ankara were attacked by groups of Turkish nationalists in seemingly coordinated acts of harassment. The employees were not hurt and went to the police to file complaints, after which all contact with them was lost.
Moscow said the incident and the suspected detention of the victims by the police constitute a gross attack on the freedom of journalists. “We call on the Turkish authorities to intervene, provide safety to employees of the Russian media and ensure that all circumstances are clarified,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Haifaa Mafalani