{"id":87511,"date":"2026-05-20T17:14:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T17:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/87511\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T17:14:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T17:14:12","slug":"turkish-journalist-questioned-over-espionage-after-email-complaint-to-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/87511\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkish journalist questioned over \u2018espionage\u2019 after email complaint to police"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A Turkish journalist has been questioned as a suspect in an \u201cespionage\u201d investigation launched after an email complaint sent to police departments across the country accused her, without presenting concrete evidence, of links to foreign intelligence services, Turkish Minute <\/a>reported.<\/p>\n

Journalist \u015eule Ayd\u0131n gave a statement as a suspect after a person identifying himself as \u201cAhmet T\u00fcrke\u015f\u201d sent the complaint to police departments in all 81 Turkish provinces, according to journalist Bar\u0131\u015f Pehlivan from the Cumhuriyet daily.<\/p>\n

The complaint, sent on April 14, 2025, alleged that Ayd\u0131n may have been in contact with intelligence agencies including the CIA, the US foreign intelligence service; Mossad, Israel\u2019s national intelligence agency; and MI6, Britain\u2019s foreign intelligence service, as well as outlawed groups.<\/p>\n

According to Pehlivan, Ankara prosecutors opened an investigation into Ayd\u0131n in 2025 after the email was sent and later instructed the \u0130stanbul Anadolu Chief Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office in April to question her as a suspect to determine whether her social media posts could constitute a crime.<\/p>\n

An \u0130stanbul prosecutor subsequently instructed police to take Ayd\u0131n\u2019s statement regarding the allegations. Ayd\u0131n went to a police station with her lawyer, Gamze Pamuk, and gave a statement.<\/p>\n

The email accused Ayd\u0131n of using \u201cinsulting, mocking, belittling and provocative expressions\u201d targeting the Turkish state, President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan, members of the judiciary and police through her social media accounts and YouTube broadcasts.<\/p>\n

The complainant asked prosecutors to take action against Ayd\u0131n on accusations including insulting the president, denigrating state institutions, inciting hatred and enmity among the public and espionage.<\/p>\n

The complaint also targeted Ayd\u0131n\u2019s YouTube\u00a0series<\/a>\u00a0\u201cT\u0131marhanede Bu Hafta\u201d (This Week in the Madhouse), a satirical political commentary program in which she discusses current affairs, government policies, the judiciary, corruption allegations, opposition politics and media narratives in a sharply critical and often humorous style.<\/p>\n

The complainant asked that the program be evaluated as part of \u201corganized criminal activity\u201d and called for a separate investigation into Ayd\u0131n over money laundering.<\/p>\n

Pehlivan said the email further requested that Ayd\u0131n\u2019s social media accounts be examined in coordination with the Security Directorate General, its counterterrorism and cybercrime departments and the National Intelligence Organization (M\u0130T), and that the accounts be \u201curgently\u201d shut down.<\/p>\n

In a section titled \u201cAgent Activities,\u201d the complainant alleged that Ayd\u0131n was carrying out \u201ca deliberate psychological warfare activity targeting national unity and public order\u201d and claimed she may have links to groups and intelligence agencies referred to in the complaint as \u201chostile structures,\u201d including foreign intelligence services and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party (PKK).<\/p>\n

Pamuk said the complaint was based on sweeping accusations rather than concrete evidence and appeared to be an attempt to criminalize Ayd\u0131n\u2019s journalism.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat matters in criminal law is not the weight of the accusatory labels but whether these allegations are supported by concrete evidence,\u201d Pehlivan quoted Pamuk as saying.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no material evidence, no technical finding, no concrete act constituting a crime and no causal link. In this form, the complaint does not qualify, in terms of criminal procedure, as one capable of substantiating suspicion of a crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

It remains unclear whether the investigation will lead to an indictment.<\/p>\n

The revelation comes amid growing pressure on journalists in Turkey, where press freedom groups say detentions, prosecutions, censorship and regulatory penalties are being used to silence critical reporting.<\/p>\n

At least 13 journalists and one cartoonist were\u00a0detained<\/a>\u00a0in Turkey in the first three months of 2026, while dozens of others continued to face trial under laws on counterterrorism, defamation, public order and insulting the president, according to a media monitoring\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0by the Bianet news website.<\/p>\n

According to Expression Interrupted, a press freedom monitoring group, 26 journalists\u00a0are<\/a>\u00a0currently behind bars in Turkey. Turkey fell to 163rd out of 180 countries in the\u00a02026 World Press Freedom Index<\/a>\u00a0published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on April 30, down from\u00a0159th\u00a0in 2025, as the group warned that authoritarianism is deepening and media pluralism is increasingly under threat in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Turkish journalist has been questioned as a suspect in an \u201cespionage\u201d investigation launched after an email complaint…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[83],"tags":[46764,3502,46765,312,729,429,2033,131,33831,132,46766,155],"class_list":["post-87511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-stockholm","tag-ahmet-turkes","tag-espionage","tag-gamze-pamuk","tag-human-rights","tag-money-laundering","tag-oppression","tag-press-freedom","tag-stockholm","tag-sule-aydin","tag-sweden","tag-timarhanede-bu-hafta","tag-turkey"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116608032030861293","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}