BREAKING NEWS

Germany alarmed by Turkish media crackdown but no sanctions

BERLIN - Germany is not discussing possible sanctions against Turkey over its widening crackdown after a failed coup in the summer and the detention last month of executives from an opposition newspaper, a spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday.
"We have big doubts whether the actions against editor in chief Murat Sabuncu and his colleagues are in line with the principles of the rule of law," Steffen Seibert said during a regular government news conference.
Sabuncu, editor of the opposition secularist Cumhuriyet newspaper, was arrested late last month and accused along with other executives of committing crimes on behalf of Kurdish militants and the "Gulenist Terror Organisation" (FETO).
Ankara blames the supporters of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen for the coup attempt. The government refers to his network as the Gulenist Terror Organisation (FETO). Gulen has denied involvement in the putsch.
Seibert added that German would not sever contact with Turkey even though it was very alarmed by the crackdown on the press.