UK’s consul general, Leigh Turner, tweeted image of himself with one of defendants at Istanbul espionage trial

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has warned Britain’s consul general over a “selfie” taken at the espionage trial of two journalists, a photograph which the diplomat tweeted of himself with one of the defendants.

Erdoğan has harshly criticised western diplomats after several showed up on Friday to support Can Dündar, editor of the Cumhuriyet newspaper, and his colleague Erdem Gül on the first day of their trial in Istanbul.

The journalists are accused of trying to topple the government with the publication of a video purporting to show Turkey’s state intelligence agency helping to ferry weapons into Syria by truck in 2014. The two face life imprisonment and their case has brought international condemnation and raised concerns about freedom of the press in Turkey.

“The consul general of a certain country went to the trial of a journalist charged with espionage, to support him. Moreover he gets a picture taken cheek to cheek [with the journalist] and had it published,” the state-run Anadolu agency quoted Erdoğan as saying, citing the text of a speech to Turkey’s war academy.

“And he does not stop at that, on social media he says things like ‘Turkey needs to decide what kind of country it will be,’ words that exceed their intended meaning.”

Erdoğan did not name the diplomat. But the British consul general, Leigh Turner, on Friday tweeted a photograph of himself with Dündar before the start of the hearing. Several other ambassadors, consuls general and diplomats also attended.

Turner tweeted: “Key point not comparisons or history but Turkey deciding for itself what kind of country it wants to be.”

The British Foreign Office in London made no immediate comment on the matter.

Erdoğan said the diplomat was only in Turkey because of the hospitality of the Turkish government, Anadolu reported.

“If this person could still go on working here that’s because of our generosity and hospitality. If it were another country they wouldn’t let a diplomat who exhibits this kind of behaviour to stay there a day more,” it quoted him as saying.

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The Turkish foreign ministry is conveying its displeasure to some foreign governments over social media postings from the trial, an official said, adding that the sharing did not conform with the principle of impartiality and could interfere with an independent judicial process.

Erdoğan, who has cast Cumhuriyet’s coverage as part of an attempt to undermine Turkey’s global standing, has vowed that Dündar will “pay a heavy price”.

On Friday, the court accepted the prosecutor’s request for Erdoğan to be one of the complainants and ruled the trial should be heard behind closed doors, decisions that drew anger from the journalists’ supporters.

The trial comes as Turkey tries to deflect criticism from the European Union – which it aspires to join – and from rights groups who say it is muzzling a once-vibrant press.

Dündar and Gül spent 92 days in jail, almost half of it in solitary confinement, before the constitutional court ruled last month that their pre-trial detention was unfounded since the charges stemmed from their journalistic work.

