No "dirty deals", says German journalist imprisoned in Turkey about his release

BERLIN, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Denis Yuecel, the prominent German journalist imprisoned in Turkey, has rejected a bilateral trade-off to enable his liberation on Wednesday.

"I am not available for dirty deals," Yuecel told press in a written interview conducted via his attorneys.

The Welt newspaper correspondent emphasized he did not want his release from jail to be the result of a more liberal German stance on arms exports to Turkey or a prisoner exchange.

The widely-publicized statement came in response to recent comments made by German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel. Gabriel had told the Spiegel magazine that Berlin would continue to withhold approval for arms exports to Turkey "as long as the Yuecel case was unresolved".

Yuecel's arrest in Turkey 11 months ago prompted outrage in Germany and remains a significant source of tension in the strained relations between Berlin and Ankara.

It occurred in the course of a government crackdown in the wake of a failed military coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in July 2016, which has witnessed the imprisonment of journalists, of which at least 11 are German citizens. Yuecel is accused by Turkish authorities of terrorist propaganda and incitement of the public.

Following the publication of Yuecel's views on Wednesday, Gabriel was quick to retort that he never offered Turkey a tit-for-tat exchange of arms for the journalist.

"I, in no way, connected those two things with each other," Gabriel said.

The foreign minister said he could understand Yuecel's perspective, but argued that the normalization in Germany's treatment of Turkey as a NATO partner was "largely unrelated" to the individual fate of the journalist.

Berlin and Ankara have both launched recent initiatives to restore their traditionally-close ties, including a resumption of meetings between interior ministry staff of the two countries to discuss terrorist threats on Wednesday.

According to German media reports, Berlin has also intensified measures to prosecute members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Germany, labeled as a terrorist organization by Ankara and the European Union (EU).

The gradual improvement in bilateral relations follows the publication of figures that showed a collapse in the number of German tourists in Turkey and a subsequent plea by Turkish officials for them to return.

Throughout his interview, Yuecel went on to describe the conditions of his custody in the Silviri prison near Istanbul. He said he was doing well overall, but complained about the sporadic application of solitary confinement, as well as his inability to speak privately with his wife.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevluet Cavusoglu had previously reiterated to press that "Denis Yuecel is not a politically-motivated case". Cavusoglu complained that the dispute over the journalist was "poisoning" German-Turkish relations despite his inability to interfere with his country's judiciary. Enditem