MADRID — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is trying to outsource the persecution of his political enemies to Spain, taking advantage of its legalistic approach to international arrest warrants.

The Turkish leader launched a major crackdown against opponents and critics following the attempt by the military to overthrow the government, which has resulted in more than 50,000 Turkish citizens jailed. Many Turks have sought refuge abroad, but that hasn’t stopped the government in Ankara from going after them.

The Spanish system for processing Interpol arrest requests, which are apparently not screened for human rights concerns before being sent to police and the courts but can be vetoed by the government at a later stage, has proved distressing for Turkish dissidents who travel to Spain — and a source of diplomatic stress between Madrid and the EU.

Two outspoken critics of Erdoğan, both EU nationals of Turkish origin, were detained this month in Spain following arrest warrants issued by Ankara via Interpol. Both are awaiting extradition hearings.

Spain’s High Court (Audiencia Nacional) decided in two different instances that Swedish journalist Hamza Yalçin must remain in custody pending a hearing. German writer Doğan Akhanlı was released but forbidden to leave the country pending the court's decision.

“I couldn't really imagine that some day in Europe I would be locked up in a cell again,” Akhanlı, who has been living in Germany since the 1990s and had been jailed in the past in Turkey, told POLITICO in an interview.

“I have full confidence in the Spanish judiciary" — German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel

“For me, Germany and Europe were the same. I thought ‘I'm in Europe, no one can hurt me,'” he said.

Earlier this month, 60-year-old Akhanlı was arrested in his hotel in Granada, where he was vacationing with his wife. He was then taken to Madrid, where he appeared the next day before a court, which ordered his release pending the extradition hearing.

Turkey’s arrest warrant against Akhanlı is based on terrorism charges, according to judicial records. From the first hearing, Ankara has 40 days to send Spain’s High Court evidence supporting the case.

The author said he considers this charge to be politically motivated — based on his writings and activities related to the persecution of Armenians and Kurds in Turkey. So do the German government and various advocacy organizations, who’ve protested his detention.

“It would be terrible that Turkey could also reach the other end of Europe to put people who raise their voices against President Erdoğan under arrest,” German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel told reporters the day after Akhanlı’s arrest.

“I have full confidence in the Spanish judiciary and know that our friends and partners in the Spanish government know what this is all about,” Gabriel added. That same day, he spoke with his Spanish counterpart Alfonso Dastis about the case, according to officials of both countries.

An official at the Swedish embassy in Spain said that high-level contacts between Stockholm and Madrid have also taken place regarding the case of journalist Yalçin, who was arrested at Barcelona’s airport on August 3 and has been imprisoned since.

The Spanish government seems to have taken notice. One official at the ministry of foreign affairs who wished to remain anonymous hinted Madrid would prevent the extradition of both men to Turkey even if the courts decide to go ahead with it — although the official said he thought it unlikely the courts will rule the extraditions should go ahead.

Extradition in Spain is a two-step procedure. It first requires a judicial decision. If the judge prevents it, then the executive can’t reverse the decision. But if the judiciary decides to proceed, the government can impose a veto.

'Red notice'

Even if extraditions ultimately don't go ahead, it is unclear how long it will be before Akhanlı and Yalçin are able to go home. Some extradition cases are solved within a few months, whereas others take a year or longer, according to legal experts.

“In this moment the government can't do absolutely anything,” other than wait for Turkey to make its case and for the courts to decide, said Jorge Toledo, Spain's secretary of state for the EU.

“The government has its own hands tied,” Toledo said. “Before an international obligation such as an international arrest warrant, Spain can’t [do anything] but proceed and bring [the person] to justice.”

Yet that seems to contradict the praxis of other EU member countries, as well as the resolutions of the Council of Europe and the recommendations of advocacy groups. They argue that Spain is interpreting Interpol requests differently to other countries.

The arrests of both men in Spain originated in an Interpol mechanism known as a red notice, which the organization defines as “a request to locate and provisionally arrest an individual pending extradition … issued by the General Secretariat at the request of a member country.”

The red notice system has aroused controversy for years. Organizations like Fair Trials International and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists have pointed out its abuse by oppressive regimes to persecute dissidents abroad.

A report by the Council of Europe in 2017 concluded that the abuse of the system “can cause serious human rights violations” and that Interpol had been “unable” to prevent such abuses in the past.

Basically, any member country of Interpol — most countries are — can upload a valid national arrest warrant to the system which Interpol distributes with almost no filter.

The organization states on its website that “each member country decides for itself what legal value to give a red notice within their borders,” explicitly saying that the system doesn’t “compel any member country to arrest an individual.”

Also, a resolution this year of the Council of Europe called all member countries, including Spain, to “refrain from carrying out arrests on the basis of red notices when they have serious concerns that the notice in question could be abusive.”

Writer Akhanlı said that just this year, he had traveled undisturbed from his home in Germany to France, the Netherlands and Italy. Although it is unclear when his red notice was issued — the notice is not public and Interpol didn’t reply to requests for information — German officials stated in a press conference last week that they were only aware of a red notice from 2013 and hadn’t received new alerts about Akhanlı.

That would mean some EU countries are screening red notices coming from Turkey while Spain isn’t.

An official in the Spanish interior ministry said the processing of those red notices was “automatic,” although he also suggested that it may be because the deterioration of human rights in Turkey has been recent, not giving time for the Spanish administration to adapt to the new situation.

A member of the German Bundestag familiar with the matter said the priority is for Interpol to step up its measures against abuses, but he said that as long as it doesn’t, member countries need to adapt.

Spain lacks “sensitivity” in the way it deals with politically motivated prosecutions abroad — Ignacio Sánchez Amor, Socialist politician

The lawmaker, who wished to remain anonymous, added that the national police forces in charge of forwarding the information provided by Interpol into their domestic search database should check very carefully “requests from countries which are known for having issued abusive red notices.”

“Civilized countries usually have such a filter,” said Gonzalo Boye, one of Akhanlı's legal team. “Here the High Court is the filter.”

Ignacio Sánchez Amor, a Socialist politician, said Spain lacks “sensitivity” in the way it deals with politically motivated prosecutions abroad, “which are simply less taken care of.” Sánchez Amor also said that he will ask Foreign Minister Dastis in Congress about the issue directly.

Writer Akhanlı's experience in Spain has given him pause about whether to recommend a visit to the country to other Turkish critics. “I wish that they should travel and come to Spain,” he first said, adding that “if in fact they are arrested, then I would be responsible from the moral point of view.”

“Each one needs to research and make a decision,” he said.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article misstated the position of an anonymous source.