Germany Denies Reports of Deporting Journalist Who Protested Erdogan

German immigration authorities denied Monday that they planned to deport Turkish journalist Adil Yigit, who was last month forcibly removed from a press conference held by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, after protesting Erdogan with a t-shirt he was wearing that read “Freedom for Journalists”.

Yigit has been writing for the German newspaper TAZ and running a Hamburg-based Turkish news outlet named Avrupa Postasi (Europe Post). He attended the Erdogan-Merkel press conference following a meeting between the two leaders in the German capital Berlin on September 28.

He was escorted from the chancellor’s office by security guards as the Turkish president — who has locked up thousands of academics, journalists and other supposed opponents since a 2016 coup attempt — looked on.

According to a report by Deutche Welle (DW) Turkish, attributed to the German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA), Yigit was taken to the foreigners office at a police station, after staging the protest in question.

The 60-year-old journalist, who says he has been living in Germany for 36 years, told the media that he recently received a notice that his residence permit had not been extended and therefore he must leave the country by January 22, 2019, or he would face deportation.

“Mr Yigit has received no notice of expulsion and there are no plans to deport him,” the Hamburg immigration authority told public broadcaster ARD.

While officials had not renewed a temporary residency permit, they had in the same letter written to him that he would receive a different form of leave to stay, they said.

“The responsible immigration office agreed this procedure with Mr. Yigit and his lawyer in advance,” they added.

Yigit feared being subjected to persecution in Turkey if he was deported.

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