German lawmaker detained in Turkey

TURKEY – “It was only in Turkey at the airport that I found out that there was an arrest warrant against me from the Kayseri public prosecutor’s office,” Akbulut wrote on the social media platform X.

Akbulut said that before she had to testify, the case file was deleted within a few hours.

When approached for comment, the Foreign Office in Berlin said it had been aware of the arrest, which took place on August 3.

The German embassy in Ankara and the consulate in Antalya had been in close contact with the lawmaker, it said. “After being informed of the arrest, the Federal Government intervened on her behalf through various channels.”

The official reason for the arrest is still unclear. The Turkish Interior Ministry has so far not released a comment.

Akbulut, from the opposition far-left Die Linke party thanked the Foreign Office for its support, adding that the incident had once again shown that there was no separation of powers in Turkey. “Don’t worry: I will not be intimidated by the arrest warrant,” she wrote.

Akbulut, who has been serving as a lawmaker in the German parliament, or Bundestag, since 2017, was born in Turkey and, by her own account, is of Kurdish-Alevi descent, Kurds who adhere to the heterodox Islamic tradition of Alevism.

She has repeatedly been critical of the Turkish government and is campaigning for Germany to lift its ban on the activities of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK), classified as a terrorist organization both in Turkey and in the EU.