EUROPE DIPLOMATIC

Late evening February 29, three Sputnik employees in Ankara were attacked at their homes, with organized groups attempting to break down the front door, threatening and calling the agency staffers “traitors” and “Russian spies”, Sputnik site informs. (Image: illustration).

Turkish police have detained the editor-in-chief of Sputnik Turkey in Istanbul.

Earlier, Sputnik Turkey said it was unable to reach three employees for nine hours; contact was lost after they went to the police to report a raid on their homes, Sputnik and RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan wrote on Telegram page.

The Turkish state news agency Anadolu has characterised the weekend attacks on Sputnik staff members as a “protest.”

The agency claimed that police had launched an investigation into the incidents.

The harresment on Sputnik crew in Ankara occurred at about 10:30 p.m. local time on Saturday, with groups of at least 10 individuals, attempting to break down apartment doors and storm the homes of the journalists.

“Police came to our office in Istanbul. One more employee is detained. Three more ours from yesterday in the police in Ankara, where the nationalists broke into their apartments the night before. Turkey, what is this ???” Simonyan wrote on her Twitter micro blog.