Also in Spain, German-Turkish author Dogan Akhanli was briefly arrested over the weekend at Turkey’s request in a further crackdown against free speech and human rights by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The author has criticized Erdogan and written extensively about human rights in Turkey, including the 2007 killing of a Turkish journalist and the 1915 Armenian genocide by Ottoman Turks. This is author Dogan Akhanli, speaking after being granted conditional release.

Dogan Akhanli: “I was even shocked, so to say, when I saw the police in front of me. Not shocked immediately, but later I was shocked that the police went there with the intention to arrest me. That shocked me, because I was wondering why I was of so much interest to the Spanish police that they have gone through so much trouble and that they, so to say, arrested me in my hotel room.”