Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ on Friday accused his German counterpart of seeking intervention in Turkey's judicial system.
Bozdağ's remarks were in response to a March 2 letter from Heiko Maas in which the German justice minister raised the detention of Turkish-German journalist Deniz Yücel.
On Thursday, Turkey's Justice Ministry sent a response letter clarifying that Die Welt's Istanbul correspondent Yücel had been arrested for spreading terrorist propaganda, not journalism “as you claimed in the latest letter".
Speaking in the northwestern Turkish city of Kocaeli on Friday, Bozdağ described Maas' request that Yücel be released as unacceptable.
“Unarguably, the Turkish judiciary is fairer, freer and more impartial than the German judiciary," he said.
“They are talking about the independence of the judiciary on the one hand and on the other, telling Turkey's justice minister 'intervene in the judiciary, if you don't intervene and don't release [Yücel] we will not believe in the fairness of your judiciary'," Bozdağ added. “Can a justice minister make a statement like this?"
Bozdağ said many European countries have been evaluating Turkey based on terrorist groups' “perception operation" against Ankara.
He stressed that Turkey's stance against such propaganda was clear.
“It is unacceptable for the unjust, non-objective propaganda of terror groups to be sent to Turkey through the pen of a minister," he added.
Tensions between the two countries further escalated earlier this month after German media and politicians sharply criticized Turkey for the pre-trial detention of Yücel on charges of terror propaganda.
