Espionage accusations: a pressure tactic against Turkish government critics
Yonca Verdioglu Sik, a project coordinator for Germany's Heinrich Böll Foundation, was questioned in Istanbul and later released. Her husband is an opposition MP, and experts see such cases as part of a long-running pattern of pressure on critics.
Police in Istanbul detained Yonca Verdioglu Sik last Wednesday evening. Born and raised in Germany, she has worked for 18 years as a project coordinator at the Heinrich Böll Foundation, a German organization that backs projects on democracy and on women's, minority and LGBTQ+ rights. According to her lawyer, she was accused of political and military espionage. The case matters beyond one person, as it shows how espionage allegations are used against critics of the Turkish government.
Questioning and release
Transcripts of the interrogation, published afterwards, show she was never asked about espionage. The prosecutor's office seemed more interested in the foundation's activities, and money transfers from the foundation to her bank account were discussed. She was released but learned she is now under a travel ban.
The detention caused outrage among government critics. Her husband, Ahmet Sik, is an investigative journalist and a member of parliament for the left-wing Workers' Party of Turkey (TIP), and one of the government's sharpest critics. Recently he has been looking into a stock market scandal that allegedly benefited members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and their associates. Opposition critics conclude that because Sik has parliamentary immunity, the justice system is pressuring him through his wife. Sik wrote in response that a state stripped of its law is no longer a state but a gang.
A long-running pattern
Since the failed 2016 coup attempt against Erdogan's government, espionage accusations have targeted journalists, opposition figures, human rights activists, foreign embassy employees and staff of foreign organizations. Such cases often end in acquittals or convictions on other charges, sometimes years later, yet an investigation alone can bring long pre-trial detention, reputational damage and social isolation. Philanthropist Osman Kavala remains in prison.
Hakki Tas, a researcher at Germany's Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA), says the number of such cases has risen in recent years. In his view they serve both domestic and foreign policy purposes, signalling to other countries that there are limits to their activities in Turkey.
