![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/german-writer-in-istanbul-in-support-of-friend-2010-12-08_l.jpg\")
<\/p>\nVERC\u0130HAN Z\u0130FL\u0130O\u011eLU<\/p>\n
ISTANBUL – H\u00fcrriyet Daily News<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A friend of Do\u011fan Akhanl\u0131 holds a banner that reads ‘Justice for Do\u011fan Akhanl\u0131’ in front of the courthouse in Istanbul as the hearing was taking place. DAILY NEWS photo, Emrah G\u00dcREL<\/p>\n
The real reason behind Turkish writer Do\u011fan Akhanl\u0131\u2019s arrest in Istanbul is his work on Armenian genocide claims, German intellectual G\u00fcnter Wallraff said Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Wallraff was in Istanbul to attend the first hearing of Akhanl\u0131, who was arrested last August while returning from self-imposed exile in Germany.<\/p>\n
Akhanl\u0131, who fled Turkey after serving sentences for his political activities following the 1980 military coup and settled in Germany as an author, translator and human rights activist, attended the first hearing of a murder case on Wednesday. Prosecutors accuse Akhanl\u0131 of being the member and leader of a terrorist organization and of killing jewelry store owner \u0130brahim Ya\u015far Tutum during an attempted robbery in 1989. Prosecutors have demanded a life sentence for Akhanl\u0131.<\/p>\n
The first hearing was continuing as the H\u00fcrriyet Daily News & Economic Review went to press late Wednesday.<\/p>\n
German writer Wallraff told the Daily News that his government was not lending support to Akhanl\u0131, who is also a German citizen.<\/p>\n
Wallraff said he believed Akhanl\u0131\u2019s 2003 work \u201cTalat Pa\u015fa Minutes,\u201d about the Ottoman political figure seen as responsible for the death of Armenians in the 1915 events, is the real reason behind his arrest.<\/p>\n
He said Germany did not want to be involved since it shared responsibility for the Armenian tragedy equally with Turkey.<\/p>\n
\u201cAkhanl\u0131 is a real intellectual,\u201d said Wallraff, criticizing the fact that despite democratic reforms in Turkey, authors and writers were still being victimized by judicial processes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to see Turkey in the European Union. But there needs to be improvement in human rights, freedom of expression and democracy,\u201d he said, adding that he does not believe Akhanl\u0131, a long-time friend, committed the murder of which he is accused.<\/p>\n
Akhanl\u0131 came to Turkey this summer to visit his sick 90-year-old father, but was unable to see to the latter before he died because of his arrest at Atat\u00fcrk Airport.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe innocence of Akhanl\u0131 will be proven one day or another. But how will one compensate for this humanitarian tragedy?\u201d Wallraff asked.<\/p>\n
Anderej Hunko from the German parliament was also present at the trial and said what was happening to Akhanl\u0131 was unacceptable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
VERC\u0130HAN Z\u0130FL\u0130O\u011eLU ISTANBUL – H\u00fcrriyet Daily News A friend of Do\u011fan Akhanl\u0131 holds a banner that reads ‘Justice for Do\u011fan Akhanl\u0131’ in front of the courthouse in Istanbul as the hearing was taking place. DAILY NEWS photo, Emrah G\u00dcREL The real reason behind Turkish writer Do\u011fan Akhanl\u0131\u2019s arrest in Istanbul is his work on Armenian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":28589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[4774,4775],"class_list":["post-28586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-armenian-question","tag-akhanli","tag-wallraff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}