Contact Lost With Three Sputnik Turkey Employees After They Reached Out to Police

Late Saturday evening, three Sputnik employees in Ankara were attacked at their homes, with organized groups attempting to break down the front door, threatening and calling the agency staffers “traitors” and “Russian spies.”

Turkish police have detained the editor-in-chief of Sputnik Turkey in Istanbul. 

Earlier, Sputnik Turkey said it was unable to reach three employees for nine hours; contact was lost after they went to the police to report a raid on their homes which happened on Saturday, Sputnik and RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan wrote on Telegram.

The Turkish state news agency Anadolu has characterised the Saturday attacks on Sputnik staff members as a “protest.”

In its report, the news organisation suggested that “unidentified people staged a protest outside the homes of three journalists working for the Ankara-based edition of the Russian News Agency Sputnik.”

The agency claimed that police had launched an investigation into the incidents.

The attack on Sputnik staffers in Ankara occurred at about 10:30 p.m. local time on Saturday, with groups of at least 10 attempting to break down apartment doors and storm the homes of the journalists.

The assailants reportedly shouted nationalist chants including “Turkey for the Turks”, “Homeland is indivisible”, while threatening and insulting the Sputnik employees, calling them “traitors” and “Russian spies.”

Following the incident, Sputnik editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan asked how the attackers obtained the agency staff’s home addresses.