Deniz Yücel

Germany will support the arrested journalist Deniz Yücel's case at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), demanding that Yücel be released, Deutsche Welle (DW) Turkish reported on July 18. 

The broadcaster based its report on an interview the newspaper Die Welt conducted with the German Justice Minister and the Chancellery Minister. 

European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker on July 16 urged Turkey to uphold democratic values if it hopes to join the European Union, a year after a failed coup bid.

Juncker's comments came a day after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan gave a speech to parliament on the anniversary of the attempted coup, following mass rallies in Ankara and Istanbul.

Defense Minister Fikri Işık met his German counterpart Ursula Von Der Leyen on June 29 amid dispute between the two nations over the withdrawal of Germany's military deployment in the İncirlik air base in southern Turkey. 

The two ministers came together on the sidelines of a NATO meeting in Brussels. 

French photojournalist Mathias Depardon was freed and deported on June 9, after a month of captivity without any official charges. When he was stopped by the police on May 8, Depardon was taking pictures in the Hasankeyf district of the southeastern Anatolian province of Batman on an assignment for National Geographic. 

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has said Die Welt reporter Deniz Yücel, who is currently in prison in Turkey, was charged with terror not because of journalism. "Just like in Germany, there is an independent judiciary in Turkey. This independent judiciary is conducting the investigation," he said. 

Members of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and Parisian street artist C215 painted the portraits of 10 imprisoned Turkish journalists outside the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on May 29, urging the court to intercede on behalf of journalists detained in the country.

Turkey has given German consular officials permission to visit journalist Meşale Tolu, a German citizen detained on charges of advancing "terrorist propaganda," a spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry stated on May 29.

Germany's Foreign Ministry has said it has been granted consular access to arrested German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yücel.

Ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer said on May 17 that consular officials will visit Die Welt reporter Yücel in Istanbul's Silivri prison on May 18 for a second time since his arrest earlier this year.

Even the pope's request that arrested German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yücel be pardoned cannot help him, Turkey's ambassador to the Vatican, Mehmet Paçacı, said in an interview with the German Catholic News Agency (KNA) in Rome on May 11.

Germany has granted political asylum to numerous Turkish military personnel and their families holding diplomatic passports, German media reported Monday, amid strained relations between the two NATO allies.