Germany Condemns Detention of Turkish-Born Writer in Spain<br />In interviews with German media, Mr. Akhanli said he was in bed early Saturday morning when he responded to a knock on the door of his hotel room in Granada to find armed police officers standing there, "expecting to find a terrorist." "They didn’t storm into the room, perhaps because I opened the door in my underwear<br />and my wife was still lying in bed," Mr. Akhanli told the German public broadcaster ARD.<br />21, 2017<br />BERLIN — In the latest episode in the diplomatic skirmish between Germany<br />and Turkey, the police in Spain, acting on a request from the Turkish authorities, have arrested a Turkish-German writer on vacation in Spain.<br />Although the writer, Dogan Akhanli, 60, was released from custody within 24 hours of his arrest on Saturday, he was ordered<br />to remain in Spain pending a decision on Turkey’s request for his extradition, which could take up to 40 days.<br />But the arrest of Mr. Akhanli, who has long had a stormy relationship with his native country<br />and became a German citizen 16 years ago, triggered outrage in Berlin.<br />Mr. Akhanli was arrested the following day, but he was released after Germany’s foreign minister, Sigmar<br />Gabriel, who was in Spain following the terror attack in Barcelona, intervened on the writer’s behalf.
