Erk Acarer is a journalist. He was charged in Turkey. He now lives in exile in Berlin. Now he has been attacked in the courtyard of his house. “I know the perpetrators,” writes Acarer.
The Turkish journalist and Erdogan critic Erk Acarer, who lives in German exile, has been attacked in Berlin. According to the police, Acarer was injured by several attackers on Wednesday evening in the Berlin district of Rudow in the Neukölln district. He suffered a head wound and received medical treatment.
The attack should have occurred in the courtyard of his house, said a police spokeswoman on Thursday morning. The State Criminal Police Office (LKA) determined. Several media had previously reported on the incident.
Acarer tweeted a photo of himself on Wednesday evening and wrote in Turkish: “I was attacked with a knife and fist in my house in Berlin.” His life is not in danger, has some swelling on his head and is in the hospital. “I know the perpetrators. I will never surrender to fascism.” He and his family are under police protection. In a video from Thursday morning, he spoke of three attackers.
Acarer was charged along with other journalists in Turkey. They were accused of disclosing classified information about state security and intelligence activities. According to Amnesty International, the background was, among other things, reports of an employee of the Turkish secret service killed in Libya.
The Turkish journalist Can Dündar, who also lives in German exile, assessed the attack as a “direct message” from the Turkish head of state Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who wanted to make it clear that Turkey could “attack a journalist critical of the regime even in Berlin”. The journalist Mesale Tolu, who was in custody in Turkey for several months in 2017, also condemned the attack.
Broadcast: Inforadio, July 8th, 2021, 7 a.m.