Turkey ignores beating of Georgian journalists at Sarpi checkpoint

On September 25, journalists of the Adjara TV for the first time registered flagrant violation of the rights of Georgian citizens at the Turkish-Georgian checkpoint of Sarpi. Meanwhile, earlier, Georgian citizens had repeatedly reported about insults and humiliations from Turkish customs officers. On the Turkish side, checkpoint officers attacked members of a film crew for the Adjara TV, who arrived at the border after people had reported assault. This was stated by journalists.

"People called the TV Channel office and reported that at the checkpoint, Turkish customs officers were beating Georgian citizens. We left for the checkpoint," said Jeni Kvantaliani, a journalist of the Adjara TV, a public broadcaster.

When the journalists entered the neutral border zone, Turkish customs officers began to behave aggressively and tried to take a camera away from a cameraman. Jeni Kvantaliani switched on Facebook Live on her mobile phone. One of the checkpoint officers struck the journalist in her face, and Facebook users saw that in live broadcast. According to Jeni Kvantaliani herself, the cameraman was also struck.

On the same day, officials of the Turkish consulate in Batumi got the video records from the checkpoint and promised to react to the incident.

Today, three days after the attack on the journalists, the Turkish diplomats never reported the results of the check. Today, the consul of Turkey in Batumi has told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that "while the examination of the video materials is underway, there is no additional information." Meanwhile, the consul has failed to say when the Turkish authorities will officially react to the incident.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.