All news

Russian foreign ministry urges Turkey to explain Sputnik journalists’ detention

The ministry stressed that the attack on the agency’s staff and their detention was a flagrant violation of their rights

MOSCOW, March 1. /TASS/. Russia’s Foreign Ministry has called on the Turkish authorities to clarify the situation with the detention of three reporters of Sputnik news agency’s Turkish bureau and ensure security of Russian journalists.

"We call on the Turkish authorities to interfere in the situation and ensure security for Russian media representatives and contribute to clarifying all circumstances of the incident," the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry stressed that the attack on the agency’s staff and their detention was a flagrant violation of their rights.

On February 29, aggressive protesters broke into the apartments of three Sputnik Turkey staffers, who are Turkish nationals. "The journalists were threatened with violence, they were told to stop their professional activity. According to available information, since last night they have been held by Turkey’s security agencies. The situation is complicated as no contact has been established with them," according to the statement.

Late on Saturday, Editor-in-Chief of the Rossiya Segodnya media group, RT and Sputnik Margarita Simonyan said that unknown men had broken into the apartments of three staffers of Sputnik’s Turkish branch in Ankara. They threatened the journalists, slapping the accusations of treason over their work for a Russian media outlet.

According to Turkish daily Sozcu, the reporters were detained over a publication on the news agency’s website titled "The Stolen Province: Why Turkey Was Given A Corner of Syria By France 80 years ago." The province of Hatay became part of Turkey in 1939 under an agreement with France when Syria was ruled by the French mandate.