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Ebru Umar (Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Oscar)
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Ebru Umar (Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Oscar)
Wednesday, 11 May 2016 - 14:05
Dutch journalist will never return to Turkey after Erdogan insult arrest
Dutch-Turkish journalist Ebru Umar will never return to Turkey if it is up to her. "Amazing how easy such decisions are when it comes to your safety", she said to Metro, where she is a columnist.
Umar has a vacation house in Turkey. She was arrested there late in April for insulting Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. She was released a day later, but banned from leaving the country. On Tuesday a Turkish court lifted that travel ban and Umar returned to the Netherlands.
"I think everyone in Turkey wanted to get rid of me", she said to the newspaper. "At six o'clock in the evening I got a call from the ambassador. 'You have to listen very carefully Ebru', he said. 'You step on to the Transavia plane soon and go back to the Netherlands."
The journalist, who previously stated she wanted to get rid of the Turkish part of her nationality, now awaits any further judicial steps against her in the Netherlands.