The German police searched the Frankfurt-based European editorial office of the Turkish newspaper "Sabah" on Wednesday morning and detained two employees. They are said to be the German coordinator of the paper, Ismail Erel, and the editor-in-chief, Cemil Albay. Mobile phones and computers were confiscated during the raid. The flats of Erel and Albay were also searched.

There is no exact information yet on the reasons for the searches. The Turkish Foreign Ministry has intervened to ensure the release of the newspaper workers. In a complaint to the Federal Government, it spoke of an "unacceptable attack on the freedom of the press". The high-circulation daily "Sabah" is considered the most important mouthpiece of the government of the incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Like the TV station ATV, it belongs to the Turkuvaz Media Group. In 2007, it was acquired by the government-affiliated conglomerate Çalık Holding and sold in 2013 to the Kalyon Group, which is loyal to Erdoğan and mainly active in the construction sector.

In Germany and Europe, the paper attracts attention above all with aggressive denunciation campaigns against critical media workers in exile. In September, for example, journalist Cevheri Güven found himself on the front page. "Propaganda imam continues to make lying and inflammatory videos in Germany, where he fled," was written next to a secretly taken photo showing Güven holding a shopping bag. The newspaper went on to proudly announce that it had tracked down the "provocateur" and his "nest of slander". The house in Babenhausen where Güven lives with his family was also photographed on the front page of the paper. In the accompanying article, the newspaper called the journalist a "terrorist", among other things.

Güven has published hundreds of videos on his YouTube channel in which he reveals, among other things, corruption cases surrounding Erdoğan and the connections of government members to organised crime. He is also repeatedly criticised in other pro-government media in Turkey. Among others, he is said to be a member of the movement loyal the exiled preacher Fethullah Gülen, which according to Ankara is responsible for the alleged coup attempt on 15 July 2016 and is classified by Turkey as a terrorist organisation.

Güven assumes that not only the editorial staff of "Sabah" is behind the spying operation. He believes that his address was passed on to the paper by the Turkish secret service (MIT) because there was a block on information in the civil register. Under normal circumstances, a place of residence cannot be traced in this way. Sabah has also published the addresses of other regime critics, including exiled journalist Abdullah Bozkurt, who lives in Sweden.