"The European Federation of Journalists, the largest organization representing journalists in Europe, recognizes the Turkish authorities’ actions [towards Sputnik] as acts of intimidation. We ask the Turkish authorities to stop this persecution and, conversely, to take measures to protect the harassed journalists," Gutierrez said on Monday.
On Saturday night, a group of aggressive people tried to force their way into the homes of three Sputnik Turkey employees in Ankara, shouting out nationalist slogans, insults and threats. Upon alerting police to the raids, the three staffers were detained. Separately, Sputnik Turkey editor-in-chief Mahir Boztepe was taken to the Istanbul police headquarters. All four were freed only after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held a phone conversation with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu.
RT and Sputnik Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan expressed her outrage over the incident. Russian, Turkish and international journalist organizations also criticized the Turkish authorities' actions.
"The EFJ wonders to what extent the acts of intimidation by nationalist demonstrators and the actions of the Turkish police and justice constitute an agreed-upon strategy to prosecute journalists working in Turkey for the Russian media. The EFJ believes that these journalists were the victims of escalating diplomatic relations between Ankara and Moscow as a result of the ongoing war in Syria, particularly in Idlib province," Gutierrez added.
The EFJ secretary general went on to say that the Turkish government intimidated Sputnik journalists for the sole purpose of exerting pressure on the Kremlin.
"We demand that the Turkish authorities stop this kind of blackmailing," Gutierrez said, calling on Ankara and Moscow to prevent the situation from deteriorating.
Fighting in Idlib escalated last week after jihadists carried out an operation against Syrian troops, prompting retaliatory attacks. Afterwards, the Turkish military said that more than 30 service members had been killed by the Syrian forces. The Russian Defence Ministry said that these soldiers were among terrorists for unknown reasons.
Russia has repeatedly claimed that Turkey has failed to implement its commitments under a bilateral deal on Idlib, particularly, by failing to distinguish between members of the armed opposition, who are ready for engaging in peace talks with the government, and jihadists.