Germany Condemns Detention of Turkish-Born Writer in Spain
In interviews with German media, Mr. Akhanli said he was in bed early Saturday morning when he responded to a knock on the door of his hotel room in Granada to find armed police officers standing there, "expecting to find a terrorist." "They didn’t storm into the room, perhaps because I opened the door in my underwear
and my wife was still lying in bed," Mr. Akhanli told the German public broadcaster ARD.
21, 2017
BERLIN — In the latest episode in the diplomatic skirmish between Germany
and Turkey, the police in Spain, acting on a request from the Turkish authorities, have arrested a Turkish-German writer on vacation in Spain.
Although the writer, Dogan Akhanli, 60, was released from custody within 24 hours of his arrest on Saturday, he was ordered
to remain in Spain pending a decision on Turkey’s request for his extradition, which could take up to 40 days.
But the arrest of Mr. Akhanli, who has long had a stormy relationship with his native country
and became a German citizen 16 years ago, triggered outrage in Berlin.
Mr. Akhanli was arrested the following day, but he was released after Germany’s foreign minister, Sigmar
Gabriel, who was in Spain following the terror attack in Barcelona, intervened on the writer’s behalf.