Turks put Dutch Journalist on Blacklist

Last month, we posted a video courtesy of Dutch journalist Bram Vermeulen. The video purported to show Turkish soldiers near the Syrian border, loading weapons and army supplies onto trucks that were allegedly destined for Syria’s rebel (Muslim Brotherhood) forces. Making the story a bit more telling was that Turkish soldiers insisted they not be filmed.

Turks to Dutch Journalist: Hold your horses.

Turks to Dutch Journalist: Hold your horses.

Fast forward to present day. It appears that Mr. Vermeulen has been placed on a black list, via NOS (translated):

NOS correspondent Bram Vermeulen is working through the courts to find out why he has been identified by the Turkish authorities as a “security problem”.

Vermeulen is on a blacklist, but the Turks refused to say why that is.

Since early this year, the NIS correspondent has been getting arrested by the border police as he enters Turkey. They have told him is that he is regarded as a prohibited person by the Turkish border authorities after they check their computers.

Even after the intervention of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Turks refused to explain on what the accusation is based. Turkish authorities have “every country has the right to protect” its sovereignty says a Turkish diplomat.

In another article, Vermeulen himself gives an account of his experiences with the Turks, again via NOS:

It’s been more than seven months since I felt this hand on my shoulder. “Would you come with me,” said an officer at the frontier post at Istanbul Atatürk Airport. There was a notice behind my name. “You are forbidden from entering Turkey,” explained an agent after hours of waiting in the border office. “You have a security problem.”

Since the Ministry of the Interior had provided me with a press card and a residence permit one month earlier, the police could not do much elese. The agent could not explain, only that I was a safety problem and that I had to ask in Ankara.

Seven months later, the notification is still behind my name. Whenever I cross the Turkish border, the same ritual is repeated. I got in touch with all the relevant authorities, the spokesman for the president of the local police, the Ministry of the Interior to the Turkish ambassador in The Hague.

The case escalated in late September when a police officer in the department of the Ministry in Istanbul threatened me, demanding that I immediately turn from the country.

So, Turkey puts a journalist on its blacklist while a very dangerous Islamic Turk named Fethullah Gulen lives opulently in the U.S. and is fawned over by American pseudo-journalists like Leslie Stahl.

Again, here is the video shot by Vermeulen’s team on August 31st in which Turkish soldiers are seen loading weapons onto trucks that are reportedly intended to supply Syrian rebels:

h/t Maarten

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