Yonca Verdioğlu Şık, a coordinator for the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Turkey, was detained in Istanbul on November 10 on suspicion of political and military espionage. She was later released under judicial control and is subject to a travel ban, according to Hürriyet Daily News.
Her lawyer said the allegations concerned espionage. But interrogation transcripts reported by DW indicated that questioning focused on the foundation’s activities and money transfers to Verdioğlu Şık’s bank account, rather than on espionage itself. She has worked for the organization for 18 years on projects related to democracy and the rights of women, minorities and LGBTQ+ people.
Verdioğlu Şık is married to Ahmet Şık, an investigative journalist and member of parliament for the Workers’ Party of Turkey (TIP). He has criticized the government and recently investigated a stock market scandal allegedly involving members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and their associates. Şık said in a written response to his wife’s detention: “If you take away a state’s law, what is left is no longer called a state, but a gang.”
Experts point to a wider pattern
Opposition figures have argued that the investigation puts pressure on Şık through his wife, a claim that remains an interpretation of the case rather than an established motive. Turkish researcher Hakki Tas of the German Institute for Global and Area Studies told DW that Turkey has a legitimate interest in protecting itself from foreign intelligence, but that security charges have also long been used against opposition figures.
Tas said investigations involving foreign institutions can have a “chilling effect” on civil society and opposition groups, since ordinary contact with foreign organizations or funding may become part of a security inquiry. Similar espionage allegations in Turkey have involved journalists, activists and employees of foreign institutions. Past cases have also led to diplomatic disputes, including the detention of German journalist Deniz Yücel and the case of US pastor Andrew Brunson.