Germany summons Turkish ambassador to protest arrests of rights activists

BERLIN - Reuters

Germany has summoned the Turkish ambassador to protest Ankara's arrest of six human rights activists including a German, a foreign ministry spokesman said on July 18.
   
Spokesman Martin Schaefer added during a regular government news conference that Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel had interrupted his summer vacation and returned to Berlin for government consultations.
   
Schaefer said it was "absurd" that Turkey had remanded one of the activists in custody on suspicion of belonging to a terrorist organisation.