When Turkish authority extends all the way to Granada
19 August 2017, break of dawn: Spanish police officers drag Doğan Akhanlı out of his bed in a hotel room in Granada. He is brought to the station and the door to his cell is locked shut behind him – yet again: As though in a time warp, Akhanlı relives the months he spent in a prison in Istanbul where he was held beginning in August 2010. The absurd allegation that he participated in a robbery didn’t hold water in court and Akhanlı was allowed to return to Cologne. But then the acquittal was reversed and ever since there has been an arrest warrant out on him circulated by Interpol. He is not allowed to leave Spain until a decision has been made about his potential extradition to Turkey.
In this sensational and revealing book Akhanlı tells the story of his persecution; about his country of origin, Turkey, which Erdoğan is driving towards fascism; about the country he fled to, Germany; about Spain and its history of dictatorship; and about others who share his fate like the German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yücel, who has been imprisoned in Turkey since early 2017.
