Turkey Expels Russian Propagandists
Russian News Agency TASS reported that according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Moscow has condemned the actions of Turkish authorities in expelling the film crew of TV channel “Russia 1.”
On December 7th, ”special correspondents” of the TV channel "Russia-1" were detained near the border with Syria, Hatay province in Southeast Turkey, while travelling to the neighboring province of Gaziantep.
The Ministry claims that the detention was carried out by unknown authorities dressed as civilians and that they refused to identify themselves. However, they allegedly showed proper documents when the journalists requested them to do so.
Afterwards, the Russian crew were brought to a police station where it was announced that a decision was made to deport them from Turkey on the basis of "violations of rules of foreign journalist activity in the Republic."
"The Turkish authorities refused to give any explanations to the representatives of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Turkey that came into contact with the crew shortly after detention," noted the Russian Ministry. "We strongly condemn the illegal actions of the Turkish authorities. This attitude towards media representatives is unacceptable." At the same time the Ministry expressed the assumption that Russian journalists might have detected illegal activities on the Syrian-Turkish border. One such activity may be oil trading with the Islamic State, something Russia has accused Turkey of doing in the past.