Deniz Yücel

German-Turkish journalist and publisher (born 1973)

Dilek Mayatürk

(m. 2017)

Deniz Yücel (Turkish pronunciation: [deˈniz jyˈdʒæl]; born 10 September 1973) is a German-Turkish journalist and publisher. He has been a contributor to several German publications, most notably Die Tageszeitung and Die Welt.

Espionage accusations and imprisonment

The Turkish government repeatedly accused Yücel of espionage on behalf of Germany's federal intelligence agency, the Bundesnachrichtendienst, and in support of the alleged terrorist organizations FETÖ and PKK. The government further claimed that Yücel aided these two groups in inciting violence in Turkey.^[1] In a speech in 2017, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared that Yücel "is a spy, not a journalist".^[2]

On 14 February 2017, Yücel was formally indicted by a Turkish court and imprisoned for espionage.^[3] His incarceration was widely criticized by journalists, politicians, and the German public.^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10] Sigmar Gabriel, the German Minister of Foreign Affairs, immediately summoned the Turkish ambassador to the Foreign Office to protest Yücel's sentence.^[11] On 16 February 2018, just over a year after his imprisonment began, Yücel was released.^[12] On 28 June 2019, the Constitutional Court of Turkey ruled that the detention of Yücel had been unlawful.^[13]

Yücel received strong public and political support in Germany throughout his imprisonment such as the one of Cem Özdemir or the one of the popular Twitter hashtag #FreeDeniz campaign.^[11] The German newspaper Die Welt, for which Yücel is a correspondent, offered to forward letters of support to the journalist. It also published Yücel's prison address in Turkey and suggested that letters written in Turkish could be sent directly to the journalist's prison cell.^{[citation needed]} The Prison letter reading commission at times only let him read the letters of his mother-in-law, but not those of his wife.^[14]

On 25 January 2022, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that Turkey had violated Deniz Yücel's human rights. The court ruled that Yücel's pre-trial detention violated his rights in three cases, including his right to liberty and security, right to compensation for unlawful detention, as well as freedom of expression.^[15]

Works

Taksim ist überall. Die Gezi-Bewegung und die Zukunft der Türkei. 2014, ISBN 978-3-89401-791-0.
Und morgen die ganze Türkei. Der lange Aufstieg des Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in: Kursbuch 188, 27 November 2016 (excerpts here).
Wir sind ja nicht zum Spaß hier. Edition Nautilus, Hamburg 2018, ISBN 978-3-96054-073-1
Agentterrorist. Eine Geschichte über Freiheit und Freundschaft, Demokratie und Nichtsodemokratie. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2019, ISBN 978-3-462-05278-7

References

^ "Erdoğan: Deniz Yücel PKK'nın temsilcisi olarak konsoloslukta saklandı". T24. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
^ Germany, SPIEGEL ONLINE, Hamburg (3 March 2017). "Erdoğan: "Deniz Yücel ist ein deutscher Agent"". Sueddeutsche Zeitung. Retrieved 19 May 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ "WELT-Korrespondent Deniz Yücel in der Türkei im Polizeigewahrsam – WELT". DIE WELT. 17 February 2017. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
^ Germany, SPIEGEL ONLINE, Hamburg (28 February 2017). "SPIEGEL und SPIEGEL ONLINE: Wir fordern Freiheit für Deniz Yücel und alle in der Türkei inhaftierten Journalisten – SPIEGEL ONLINE – Politik". Der Spiegel. Retrieved 2 March 2017.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ Shaheen, Kareem (28 February 2017). "'Assault on freedom of expression': Die Welt journalist's arrest in Turkey condemned". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
^ Adu, Aletha (1 March 2017). "Merkel BLASTS president Erdogan's 'bitter and disappointing' regime for journalist arrest". Express.co.uk. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
^ "Turkey orders German newspaper journalist jailed until trial". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 27 February 2017. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
^ Oltermann, Philip (1 March 2017). "Angela Merkel urged to ban Erdoğan over jailed German journalist". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
^ "Journalist for German newspaper arrested in Turkey". The Guardian. Reuters. 27 February 2017. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
^ "Konvoylar devam edecek: Deniz Yücel tutuklandı" (in Turkish). Retrieved 2 March 2017.
^ ^a ^b Germany, SPIEGEL ONLINE, Hamburg (28 February 2017). "Bundesregierung im Fall Yücel: Protest ohne Trööt – SPIEGEL ONLINE – Politik". Der Spiegel. Retrieved 2 March 2017.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ Germany, Die Welt, Berlin (16 February 2018). "Deniz Yücel verlässt das Gefängnis und ist frei". Die Welt. Retrieved 16 February 2018.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ Borshoff, Isabella (28 June 2019). "Detention of journalist Deniz Yücel was unlawful: Turkish top court". politico.eu. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
^ Zeitung, Süddeutsche (March 2019). "Demonstration der Worte". Süddeutsche.de (in German). Retrieved 1 December 2020.
^ "Deniz Yücel: European court rules Turkey violated journalist's human rights". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 25 January 2022.