Enlarge image
Erk Acarer at a press conference last week
Photo: STEFANIE LOOS / AFP
The government-critical Turkish journalist Erk Acarer has apparently been threatened again two weeks after an attack on him.
The Berlin police expand the investigation.
It will also be checked whether the two incidents are related, said a police spokeswoman.
The state security responsible for politically motivated acts is determined by the State Criminal Police Office.
Acarer tweeted on Tuesday that a boiled egg wrapped in paper had been thrown into the garden of his house at night.
The note said in Turkish: "You'll see." The journalist handed the items over to the police, the spokeswoman said.
Acarer, who lives in exile in Germany, was injured by several attackers in the courtyard of his home in the Rudow district in early July in Berlin, according to the police.
He suffered a head wound and received medical treatment.
Two men hit and kicked the 48-year-old, a third man observed the area.
When witnesses became aware, the men had fled, the police said.
Numerous journalists and politicians had declared their solidarity with Acarer.
Acarer sees the federal government as responsible
On Tuesday the journalist also tweeted: "If anything should happen to me, the AKP-MHP government and its mastermind gangs and, in my opinion, the passive German government are responsible for it." The AKP is the party of the ruling Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
It forms a government alliance with the ultra-nationalist MHP, without which it would not have a majority in parliament.
Acarer, who has been living in Berlin for some time, was charged with other journalists in Turkey.
They were accused of disclosing classified information about state security and intelligence activities.
According to the organization Reporters Without Borders, the well-known journalist was repeatedly threatened because of his critical reporting in Turkey.
He came to Berlin in April 2017 thanks to an emergency grant.
The Turkish journalist Can Dündar, who also lives in German exile, viewed the attack at the beginning of July as a “direct message” by Erdoğan, who wanted to make it clear that Turkey could “attack a journalist critical of the regime even in Berlin”.
The journalist Meşale Tolu, who was in custody in Turkey for several months in 2017, also condemned the attack.
ptz / dpa
