German police use dogs to search belongings of Turkish passengers

ISTANBUL

Amateur camera footage has revealed that police recently used dogs to search the belongings of passengers arriving at Germany’s Düsseldorf Airport from Istanbul.

In mobile phone footage captured by a passenger at the airport, police dogs can apparently be seen sniffing the belongings of Turkish Airlines passengers from Istanbul through a metal detector after they leave the plane.

The footage was not dated or attributed but ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy Mustafa Yeneroğlu shared the footage on his Twitter account on Dec. 16, blasting the measure.

“Neither guests nor citizens are welcomed by dogs! This tyranny is a shame for Germany and it should immediately be ended. Turkey-Germany relations cannot return to normal with such a mentality. Such approaches can never provide security but rather only increase distrust,” Yeneroğlu said.

Back in October controversy was stirred following a similar incident at Germany’s Munich Airport, in which passengers coming from Turkey were bodysearched with dogs. Border officials in Turkey retaliated by bodysearching passengers coming to the country from Germany with sniffer dogs.

Also in October, Austrian officials conducted body searches on Turkish passengers with dogs at Vienna’s Schwechat Airport. The move drew an angry response from Ankara, with the Foreign Ministry condemning the “harassment of passengers” by Austrian authorities.